Just an Average Death
by bluejanes
Summary: After living a perfectly average life and being reborn as Cedric Diggory's twin sister, you start to wonder what "average" really means. SI/OC fic.
1. Chapter 1

People hear about drunk driving accidents all the time on the news. As tragic as it is, it isn't as shocking to hear about deaths caused by drunk driving as it is to hear about people killed in a fire or a shooting.

Jessica Smith is one of thousands of ill-fated sob stories about a young teenager with a full life ahead of him/her that had it taken away by a drunk driver. Though, in retrospect, it probably hadn't been the greatest idea to try and walk home at night by herself.

She'd just been dragged to her first party, by her best friend Mary, who'd told her that it was her senior year; she might as well learn how to drink before heading off to college.

Too bad she'd never actually gotten to learn to drink or go to college.

Jessica had not been fond of parties, and the first five minutes crammed into a room of drunk, loud and sweaty teenagers had been more than she could handle. She'd quickly bid Mary goodbye and resolutely started for home, unknowing of the plans of a few reckless teenagers to street race in order to show off their new cars. They'd been drunk out of their asses, and racing in the moderately narrow streets of a neighborhood was not the best thing for their erratic motor skills. At the curb, the driver of the sleek silver-blue Ferrari had turned the wheel too late, and had veered onto the sidewalk into a petrified Jessica. He'd left behind a trashed $300,000 sports car, a twisted street lamp, three damaged trees, and a dead body.

All Jessica had seen in her last moments was the glaring and blinding headlights of a shadowy car of an otherwise dark night.

Eighteen years of her life, stolen in a flash. A seemingly infinite future cut off and choked too early. If she'd known how transient life was, she would've savored the moments with those she loved.

The next time she opens her eyes, it's another gleaming light that pierces her vision.

Confused and disoriented, she lashes out, thrashing like a madwoman running out of hell.

What's going on? She has no idea what just happened—all she knows is that one moment, she was alive and well trying to get home, and the next, she's in an unknown place with no idea of what is happening.

An arm gently bounces her and a soft voice coos soothingly.

Wait, what? She can feel herself being held by someone.

That was not normal for a fully grown eighteen year old girl.

She stops squirming for a few seconds to see a blurry blob with long, brown hair and sharp grey eyes looking down at her with a loving smile. The colors are difficult to discern but the brown and the grey are so vivid that they stand out like neon yellow in the midst of grey. Her vision is so terrible she wonders distantly if she forgot to put on her contacts again. But she feels strange; too strange, in fact.

There's a long, stiff silence when she stops crying—when had she started crying?—and moving. And then she realizes that she's a baby.

A baby.

What the fuck?

The knowledge is a like a sledgehammer that whacks her far, far away from reality. Actually, she can't even tell if she's dreaming or not. And with that pleasant thought, she promptly begins to shriek at the top of her lungs.

With that raw, terrified shriek, she hears another voice join in, and in seconds, it's a cacophony of screaming babies. She cries, sobs, and howls until her newly born body is too exhausted to keep going and falls into darkness.

When she opens her eyes for the second time in this new life, she's horrified to see that she's still a baby. What kind of dream lasts this long?

There's another baby next to her in the warm crib that she's lying in. She turns her head as much as she can and all she can see is the same brown and grey she first saw when she opened her eyes. It's a struggle to try and turn on her side to see more, but it's too much, and she lies on her back, too tired to even move.

She feels like one of those bugs who can't roll upright once they're flipped upside down by a few cruel but curious kids.

At least she can still flail her arms.

Her vision is still way too hazy to see any distinct lines or colors, but from what she can make out, she's in a very fancy crib.

A plethora of stars hang above her, and mind you, they aren't those fake, plastic yellow cartoon stars. They're real stars, like the ones you can look up and see when you go camping on a fresh, clear mountain.

They twinkle and twinkle, with a pale, silver crescent moon hanging in the middle of them. It's almost as if she's stargazing with her family again on a cool, crisp night during one of their obligatory holiday camping trips.

It gives her a nameless comfort, and when she closes her eyes, she can almost feel the gentle warmth of her mum, the vivacious grin of her brother, and the solid and steady arm of her dad.

* * *

Every day is the same—she wakes up, cries, gets fed the best milk she's ever tasted, gets rocked back to sleep, and the whole cycle repeats. It's the most boring routine ever, but it gives her time to really think about her situation.

So far, based on the unknown place that she keeps waking up to, this isn't a dream. But she doesn't know exactly what it is. This isn't her house, her body, or her family. This isn't her life.

She just wants to go home.

But she can't. She's tried everything. She's prayed, begged, bargained, and even tried pretending she has powers that will send her home if she just squeezes her eyes shut and concentrates. Like somehow she'll be back in her bed and the familiarity of her family when she opens her eyes.

It never happens.

The only thing that happened when she squeezed her eyes was that the crib had mysteriously been transported to the room of the couple that fed her. It'd woken up the baby besides her, and when he'd started crying, the couple had shot up from their beds with surprise.

Her not-quite fully developed body may have shitty eyesight, but she isn't deaf. She could hear the excited murmurs of the couple when they examined the moved crib, and had even heard something like "early accidental magic". It'd confused her to no end, but she hadn't really pondered on it. The baby beside her had been way too annoying with all the crying for her to do that.

Still, it makes her wonder where exactly she is.

It isn't until she hears the woman who feeds her call her Celia and the baby that's always next to her Cedric that she finally gets a hint.

Magic. Cedric. It all sounds awfully familiar, but there's something missing that she can't put her chubby baby finger on.

But then she sees the wands. She can't believe she hasn't noticed before, but every time the woman feeds her with the bottle, she warms it up with a wand.

A wand. It's merely a piece of wood, and it looks as fake as a badly replicated piece of art, but it's powerful nonetheless. From that point on, she watches the couple like a hawk.

They cook with wands. They clean with wands. They do practically everything with wands. It's simply crazy, and she's so freaked out by this almost dissonant reality that she can't do anything but watch.

It doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't.

So she hides herself in the solace of her own thoughts, wrapped in her memories.

The simple, happy times she'd had with them. Those quiet, average days filled with what she knew and the people she loved. No—the people she loves. Even if she's in a new place, in a new body, she still loves her family. The ones that supported her, loved her for the full eighteen years of her life.

She remembers her brother's mischievous grin when he told her that he'd be taking her room once she went to college. Even if the room had the markings of herself all over it, she hopes that her brother can make it his, now that she's gone. To keep it safe for her until she goes back.

Time passes indefinitely; Jessica can never tell how much time has passed, when most of her days are spent absorbed in obsessing over the life she had. But she has a life here too, and she almost forgets that until she realizes that she can see clearly; that she can move with more mobility, that she can start forming words with her young vocal chords.

It's hard not to see time passing, no matter how much she tries to ignore her current situation. Cedric has already begun to crawl, and because he always pokes and prods her to follow him, she has no choice but to start crawling as well. Even if it feels like a betrayal to her old life to start living this new one, Jessica has no choice but to grow. The couple that takes care of her, Amos and Camilla, have already taken her to a hospital called "St. Mungo's" because she was apparently too quiet.

The whole hospital visit was somewhat like a wakeup call for Jessica. She's too different from Cedric—she never cries, never makes a sound, and hardly interacts with Amos and Camilla. It's not normal, and Jessica can't be anything but normal. She doesn't need another hospital visit, or extra attention. She just wants to be left alone.

Even though she's brooding and throwing a pity party for herself most of the time, Cedric is always, always, with her. No matter how much she wants to be left alone, she can't, because she's got a twin. Or someone's who supposed to be her twin—even though Jessica doesn't have a twin.

Still, he's too much of a sweetheart for her to ignore. Cedric is possibly the most adorable baby she's ever seen, and he's definitely the sweetest. She's a quiet baby, but Cedric always manages to make her smile, even when she misses her family to the point where it's almost unbearable. He often snuggles up to her whenever they nap, and he's a constant presence that's become comforting without her even knowing.

Ever since he started learning how to talk, he's been babbling to her nonstop.

"Lia!" Cedric grins up at her with a gummy smile; his baby teeth still growing in.

She can't help it—his smile is too innocent, too bright, and she smiles back.

He reaches over and grabs her shirt/jumper thing that spans her entire body and tugs gently.

"Lia!" Their crib is large, probably around the size of a king-sized bed, and it's safely padded all around. Cedric begins to crawl a few paces to the best of his ability, before he flops onto his stomach, looking adorably disgruntled.

"Lia, come!" He tells her excitedly, clambering onto his knees again, and looks at her with sparkling grey eyes. Jessica's heart warms and she finds herself getting onto her knees with the wobbly strength of a one year old, and follows him.

She'd been consumed with regrets and the thoughts of her past, but indulging Cedric in his games sufficiently distracts her for the time being.

It isn't much—just following him around and doing whatever he wants—but it is cheering, nonetheless. Just a simple game lifts her spirits, and when he snuggles into her that night, she almost feels like a twin sister. Almost.

* * *

Amos and Camilla Diggory are kind, attentive parents. And because of that, they notice when Jessica says her "first" word.

Of course, she's already known how to speak for ages now, but the first time they hear her, she's with Cedric.

Jessica hasn't noticed their presence yet; she's too busy watching over Cedric worriedly as he tries to climb out of the crib and jump onto the softly padded carpet below them.

Recklessly, he stands on both feet while using his arms to support him, and tries to lift his leg onto the top of the bar of their crib. It doesn't take him anywhere, and he falls backwards with a small thump. Jessica crawls as fast as she can to where he is, but before she can do anything, he's up and crawling again.

His persistence is admirable, but Jessica's too scared he'll hurt himself to allow him to keep going. She grips his leg and shakes her head.

"Lia!" He whines, "Out. Good." Pointing at the ground, he smiles and tries to make his objective look appealing.

Jessica shakes her head again, firmly, and Cedric pouts and tugs his leg away. He grips the bars tightly, and looks as if he's going to shake them, but suddenly disappears and ends up on the ground without doing anything.

One moment he was right in front of her, and the next, he's gone.

Panic fills Jessica up and her heart contracts with fear.

"Cedric!" She screams, looking down from behind the bars of the crib.

Cheerily, he smiles up at her with an almost cheeky-grin. He's confused by the new surroundings, but he immediately begins to explore. His crawling is slow and steady, but Jessica has never been so far apart from him before.

She's scared. Dread fills her to the brim and she's nearly shaking. What if something happens and he dies? How can she lose the only thing that anchors her to her sanity? Just like how she disappeared in the blink of an eye, so could he. She might never see him again—never hear his bubbly laugh, never see his bright grey eyes, never feel his soothing warmth.

 _No_. She thinks desperately, and she reaches almost futilely after him.

One heartbeat, one blink, and she's on the ground next to him, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

The crib is a large, looming object above her, and she stares up at it with new eyes. She's always been inside of it, so she's never realized its complexity; but looking at it now, from a new angle, it looks like a castle.

The woodwork is a wonder, and the designs are intricately carved. Everything is covered with plush, colorful blankets in the structure of a miniature house. Moving, bright designs flow across the sides and the top is covered with a miniature sky that changes depending on the time of day and weather. It's beautiful, and Jessica has never realized how lucky she was to be born into such a loving household.

They're not her family, not quite yet, but she can feel them coming closer and closer to her heart.

She suddenly hears a warm laugh above her, and she looks up to see Camilla reaching down to pick her up.

"Celia, dear, your first word! I'm not surprised it's your brother's name, considering how close you two are. How sweet! Amos, did you see that? Cedric's first usage of accidental magic, and Celia's first word!" Camilla's smiling so widely, so lovingly, that Jessica wouldn't be surprised if her cheeks are aching.

Amos laughs loudly and excitedly, "Of course I did! I've got it all recorded for the family scrapbook too! Look how amazing our children are; they're so talented!"

He picks up Cedric and swings him in the air, and Cedric squeals happily.

"Da!" Cedric reaches out and gently pats Amos' face, and Amos looks so touched that tears begin to fill up his eyes.

"Oh, Camilla, look how wonderful our children are." He's smiling just as widely as his wife, though the only difference is that his eyes are brimming with tears of joy.

Jessica laughs because he's so expressive; she laughs because they feel like a family. Like her own.

* * *

It isn't long after that that Amos calls over their neighbors for a visit. It's kind of hilarious, really, because she can see his true intentions. He's been itching to boast about his children to others, and having another family over would just give him the chance he's been waiting for. Camilla, of course, sees this as well, but she just laughs and shakes her head fondly when he tells her that the Weasleys are coming over for a visit.

The name "Weasleys" sets off a warning bell in Jessica's head, and she's almost scared for their arrival. Because if they turn out to be Arthur and Molly Weasley with a family of redheads, it's a flashing neon sign that proves she's in the _Harry Potter_ universe. And that isn't what she wants.

She can tell Cedric is excited for them, though, and he's bouncing with excitement at the prospect of meeting new people.

"Weebly!" He calls excitedly from where they're sitting on the floor, when the doorbell rings.

Camilla pats his head fondly, "Yes, dear, it's the Weasleys."

Amos opens the door with a flourish. "Arthur, old chap, it's great to see you! I haven't seen you in ages."

The tall, almost gangly red-headed man walks in holding a small baby in his arms. "It's great to see you too, Amos! How've you and Camilla been doing? I know you've got a set of twins to raise. Molly and I struggle with our boys at times, they're so wild."

Camilla steps up to greet them as well. "We've never been happier, Arthur. Molly, you look great! I can't believe it's only been a few weeks since you've had your newest son."

A short, re-headed woman steps up and smiles genially. "Thanks, Camilla. Percy's such a well-behaved baby—a lot easier to handle than Charlie and Bill ever were." Her short, plump stature contrasts with Camilla's tall, willowy frame, but they both have the same open-hearted kindness in their eyes.

"Hey!" Yelps a boy from behind Molly, "I'm sure I was the best, right dad?" A boy looking to be around six looks up at Arthur impishly—he has an almost feral grace to him that commands the attention of the room.

"Of course Charlie, you were the best when you weren't ripping up all your blankets." Arthur teases him gently.

Another boy, taller and older, snickers at Arthur's words. "Nice try, Charlie. We all know that I was the best."

Molly rolls her eyes affectionately, "You both were absolute terrors. Still are, in fact. I've just repaired ten broken dishes and five porcelain cups from my best tea set."

"Mum!" The two boys cry, embarrassed.

Amos chuckles loudly. "Looks like your mum can never catch a break, eh, Bill, Charlie?" He leads them all the living room where they settle down on the fancy, plush couches.

Jessica stares at them, wide-eyed, and Cedric looks interested in the whole situation. They're still on the living room carpet, but their toys have been abandoned in favor of watching the Weasleys settle down.

"These are my children, Celia and Cedric." Amos says proudly, gesturing to them.

Cedric looks curious and grins brightly, "Hi!"

Jessica waves shyly but doesn't say anything, preferring to hide behind Cedric's back. It's uncomfortable, being introduced to so many people at once—especially since she's been only seeing them as characters until this point. They're intimidating, and she needs the comfort of Cedric's familiarity.

She's never been good with strangers anyway.

Molly smiles warmly and Arthur waves back.

"They're smart for their age." Compliments Arthur, and Amos preens.

"Why don't Bill and Charlie play with them while we talk?" Offers Camilla. She sets down a tray of tea on the table in front of the adults and Bill and Charlie move over to where Jessica and Cedric are.

"I'm Bill." The older of the two boys sticks his hand out, "Nice to meet you both."

Cedric stares at it, puzzled, and grips his finger curiously.

Jessica tugs at Cedric's sleeve. "Like this." She grabs Bill's finger—her chubby, small hands can't grip anything larger—and tries to shake it. His hand is a lot larger and heavier than hers, and she's barely able to make his hand move.

Bill stares at her, amused, and Cedric makes a noise of understanding and moves to copy her.

At this point, Bill's got two kids hanging off his hand, trying to shake it, and Jessica decides to let go before he topples over.

The adults are watching them with barely stifled amusement, and Bill's cheeks flush a bit when Amos laughs boisterously.

Camilla is watching Jessica with sharp eyes—she's never taught her how to shake hands, so the fact that Jessica already knows is more than surprising.

With her slip-up in mind, Jessica resolves to be as unnoticeable as possible for the rest of the visit.

Fortunately, Cedric is outgoing enough for the two of them. He's thrusting a puzzle piece toward the Weasley brothers and Jessica begins to assemble to broken pieces.

Puzzles in the magical world are a hundred times more exciting than "normal" ones. The pictures on the pieces can move, and once you finish the puzzle, you get the treat of a short clip.

Bill and Charlie sit down next to them and are already pulling the pieces together before Cedric or Jessica can do anything.

They completely take over the game, and when they finish, Cedric is watching in awe of their skills. Jessica just turns her attention to the completed puzzle and watches the clip. It's kind of like an old Disney clip with Mickey Mouse, except that there's a little boy flying on a broom on this one.

"Hey, that's Quidditch, isn't it Bill?" Asks Charlie eagerly.

"Yeah, looks like a Seeker. That's your position, isn't it, Charlie?" Bill answers, grinning at his younger brother.

"I'm gonna be a Seeker when I go to Hogwarts." Charlie tells Jessica and Cedric enthusiastically.

Cedric frowns, "Ho'warts?"

Bill and Charlie's eyes widen comically.

"You don't know about Hogwarts?" Gasps Charlie.

Cedric shakes his head, "What Quich?"

Charlie stares at him, uncomprehending.

"Quidditch." Jessica clarifies, her pronunciation too clear for a one year old. Fortunately, the adults are too engrossed in their conversation to hear her.

"Ohh!" Charlie says, nodding. "Lemme tell you about Quidditch!"

He proceeds to launch in a detailed description of Quidditch that confuses Cedric to no end. Jessica listens, only half-interested, because flying on a broom sounds like a great idea.

Losing interest, Cedric tugs on Jessica's sleeve and points to another puzzle. Charlie doesn't notice and keeps talking, but Bill finally whacks his shoulder to make him stop.

"They don't understand, Charlie. They're too young."

It's a bit rude, in Jessica' opinion, because she's not too young, dammit, but it's true to an outsider's perspective. She wants to get up and shout that she's not too young, that she's older than any of the kids could ever be. But she can't, because she's only supposed to be one years old.

"I'm bored." Whines Charlie, looking around distractedly for something to amuse him.

"We're supposed to play with them." Admonishes Bill, sounding a lot more mature than his eight years of age.

"Let's read them books." He suggests, "Mum always says that reading makes you smarter. And it's not boring."

Charlie shrugs in defeat, "Okay."

Cedric is too busy with a new puzzle to pay attention to them, so Jessica tugs on his hand.

"Story." She tells him, trying to convey that they should go look at some books to accommodate everyone's interests.

Thankfully, Cedric is delighted at the mention of a story and crawls over to Bill and Charlie.

"Story!" He tells them excitedly.

"I wonder what kinda books they have." Mutters Bill to himself as he scans the room for a bookshelf.

The Diggorys don't have a bookshelf in the living room—all the books for children are in Cedric and Jessica's bedroom.

Jessica sighs; they'll be getting nowhere at this speed, and Cedric will get tired of waiting.

She takes a deep breath to muster up the courage to talk to Bill. When you're one years old, everyone looks like giants.

"Books." She catches his attention, "Bedroom. Go right."

Bill looks surprised by her comprehension of the situation but nods. He's still young and doesn't know how intelligent normal one year olds are supposed to be.

He gets up to find the bedroom, but Jessica remembers Charlie's boredom and stops him.

"Dragons." She nods solemnly, like she's sending him on an important mission.

At this, Charlie perks up from his lazy state of lying on the ground.

"Dragons! C'mon Bill, let's go!" He jumps up and practically drags Bill away in search of the bookshelf.

Jessica lets go of the breath she didn't know she had been holding. It had taken a lot of effort to talk to them—she still doesn't want to believe she's in a magical world, and she's scared to be exposed to something new.

The more she finds out about this world, the more she'll be enveloped in it. She doesn't want to leave her old life behind, but this world is becoming more and more like reality.

Bill and Charlie are back in moments; their age allowing them to run quickly, which Jessica finds herself jealous of. She misses the feeling of being able to walk. It's a lot more efficient and quicker than crawling everywhere. She makes a mental note to start practicing how to walk soon.

Charlie's clutching a rather thick book and drops it down heavily on the floor in front of Cedric and Jessica. Cedric pokes down at it with interest and Charlie and Bill sit down with a plop.

Bill heaves the book open and turns the book to face Cedric and Jessica.

"Dragons." He tells them, and points to a big red one. "Chinese Fireball."

"Wait, wait." Charlie tugs the book closer to him excitedly, "Lemme do it!"

"Okay, okay." Bill allows his brother to take over and watches quietly.

Cedric is enthralled by the majestic dragons, and the moving pictures are detailed enough to hold his attention. Charlie seems to forget their age and blabbers on about the dragons passionately.

It's hard to believe that dragons exist, but the proof is right in front of her. Jessica realizes that everything that she thought was fake is now real.

Things like unicorns and leprechauns and goblins.

She spends the rest of the book sitting in silent contemplation. Bill notices her silence and scoots over to sit next to her.

"What's wrong?"

Jessica turns to look at him. He doesn't seem real, but he is. Up close, he's a real person. Not a character. The thought is jarring and she shrugs in answer to his question.

"It's okay, you can tell me." Bill tries to comfort her. Jessica nearly snorts. She wants to tell him that she's supposed to be one—how can she have any problems? But it's nice to have someone notice her inner turmoil. Amos and Camilla never notice because she's always been quiet—and if they have noticed, they haven't said anything. And Cedric is too young to understand complex emotions.

Since Bill is only a child, he won't understand her dilemma anyway. So she tells him in the vaguest way possible, desperate to vent her stress.

"I'm Jessica."

He frowns with confusion, his brows coming together in a wrinkle.

"But you're Celia?"

Jessica shakes her head. "I'm Jessica. Not Celia."

Bill still doesn't understand but he's not too disturbed by her identity dilemma. He just blinks uncomprehendingly, unable to grasp the issue.

"Okay, you're Jessica. What about Cedric? Who's he?"

"He's Cedric." Jessica isn't afraid of spilling her secrets indirectly—she's so insignificant in his life that he'll forget about the conversation anyway. It's such a relief to finally express her problems, so she makes the most of it.

"Okay." Says Bill, like he's indulging a child's delusional fantasies. "So you're Jessica and he's Cedric."

Jessica looks at him with satisfaction. She's been waiting for someone to call her Jessica ever since she was named Celia. But even as he says it, she feels a sting in her chest, like she almost believed that she was Celia.

It's almost like a betrayal, and she doesn't know where to turn.

Who is Celia? Was she even meant to be born? Did Jessica take away someone else's life?

It's too much for her to handle right now, and she's sinking into an abyss of self-loathing; but then again, when has she ever been able to handle her situation? The thought grips her, and she wants to scream out loud, scream until her lungs are empty and her heart is unscarred and whole. But she can never be the person she was before—she's lost too much to keep that honest innocence.

Bill senses her change in mood and is left floundering about, unsure what to do with the distraught girl.

As if he can read her thoughts, Cedric switches his attention from Charlie and crawls closer to Jessica.

He touches her hand gently and Jessica is left to wonder if twins have some kind of empathetic connection.

"Lia." Cedric is more understanding than she ever thought possible. Jessica grips his hand like a lifeline, and begins to cry.

Her sudden sounds makes the adults jump with surprise, and Camilla rushes over, afraid that Jessica's gotten hurt.

Jessica is clutching Cedric's hand tightly and sobbing like there's no tomorrow while Cedric sits as close as he can to her, staying silent.

Camilla has no idea of what to make of it.

"What happened?" She asks Bill and Charlie.

Charlie shrugs helplessly. "I was just reading them a book about dragons."

Bill looks frightened. "I dunno, we were just talking, I swear! Then she started crying."

"It's alright, you two didn't do anything wrong. I think Celia is just tired." Camilla tries to separate Cedric from Jessica so she can pick her up, but Cedric refuses to budge and Jessica doesn't let go of his hand.

Uncertain of what to do, Camilla sinks to her knees and clutches the two of them to her chest.

"There, there." She murmurs, stroking Jessica's hair.

While his wife takes care of Cedric and Jessica, Amos tries to keep things under control.

"I guess the twins have had a long day." He tells the Weasleys.

"Oh no worries," Molly assures him, "Charlie and Bill were like this a lot too. We'll just go home and come back another time. Right, Arthur?" Her husband nods in agreement and calls his two sons over.

"Say goodbye, okay?" Arthur tells his children.

Bill nods obediently. "Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Diggory. Bye, Cedric, Celia."

Charlie does the same, but he walks over to Cedric and Jessica. He pats their heads and pulls out a candy from his pocket and gives it to Jessica.

"Here. Don't cry anymore, okay? We can read more about dragons next time."

Jessica almost snorts in the midst of all her crying, amused by Charlie's simple thought process. She takes the candy and calms down a bit, reducing her tears to sniffles.

She can feel Cedric mushed up next to her in Camilla's hug, and he hasn't squirmed or complained a bit during her crying. Being enveloped in a hug and a bubble of love is such a warm feeling that Jessica can't help but calm down.

When the Weasleys leave, she manages a tiny wave to them. Cedric stares at the candy that Jessica is gripping so tightly her knuckles are white. She follows his stare and relinquishes the green-wrapped candy without protest.

It's a sour grape candy, something surprisingly normal for this world, and she nearly laughs when Cedric's face twists into a grimace from the taste.

"C'mon," Amos heaves Cedric up, "Let's get you two to bed."

Jessica and Cedric are gently placed into the crib, and Amos gives both of them a kiss on the forehead.

The kiss tingles, and Jessica can feel its mark on her forehead for a long time. Camilla tucks them in with care and affectionately strokes their backs before quietly turning off the lights.

"I love you." She whispers to them, and Jessica can feel tears stinging her eyes again.

Cedric cuddles up against her as usual, and Jessica reciprocates.

* * *

Jessica wakes up way before Cedric does, and she uses that time to think about everything that's happened.

She knows one thing for sure—she's stuck in the world of _Harry Potter_. But she's still unsure as to how she even got here in the first place.

Her memories are becoming hazier and muddled, but she still distinctly recalls the two bright lights that burned her eyes the moment before she appeared into this world.

Then, she realizes a possibility she hadn't considered before.

Was she dead? She'd been walking home from the party, and then she'd seen headlights and everything was cut off.

Had she been killed by a drunk driver?

It's something she doesn't want to contemplate because it means that she'll never see her family again. Never hear the house filled with their laughter, because she's in a different house with different sets of laughter now.

She can't forget her previous family. She sees their faces and smiles in her dreams, but even those are becoming blurry. It scares her, that she's losing the vividness of her past life, and that her mind is being filled with the new memories of the life she's living.

But it's certain now—she's dead. No matter how much she wants to ignore it, she has to accept the fact that she's dead. She's dead and she's living another life.

It's so ironic that she was reborn into a magical world, and the thought fills her throat with a bitter laugh.

She'd just been an average girl. Someone who loved to watch t.v., someone who loved to read, someone who wanted to get good grades and make her family proud. She'd lived such an average life, and now she had been born into something extraordinary. How could someone like her survive in this world? It'd be torn up by war soon, and Cedric would die.

Just like she did.

Her death had been perfectly average—another teenager killed by drunk drivers, but Cedric's death would not be.

He was meant for much, much more than her. But he'd been the first kill in the war against Voldemort.

How could she let someone as bright and great as Cedric die? Jessica was an average girl, but she could save Cedric. Save the person who'd become the closest to her in a strange and alien world.

She doesn't quite feel like Celia, but she can feel the tangles of the bonds between her and the people that surround her.

She'll never see her family again, and she needs to force herself to accept that.

Jessica turns to stare at the small body next to hers.

 _This is Cedric._ She tells herself, _my twin brother_.

It feels so strange in her mind, because she had—has—a brother and he's not her twin. Rather, _Jessica_ doesn't have a twin brother, but Celia does.

The two names clash in her, warring for dominance.

Who is she? Jessica or Celia? She doesn't know.

Who can she be? She wants to hold on to her identity as Jessica—it's the last thing tying her to her previous life. But Celia is the one calling out to her, telling her to accept these people who love her as her own.

It's a dichotomy that she can't understand. So she snuggles closer to Cedric and falls back asleep, with a gaping ache in her chest.

She's awakened by Cedric who's stumbling all over the crib, trying to stand on his legs.

Every time he falls, the crib shakes a bit, and he's fallen twenty times in the past minute. Jessica sighs and sits up. She crawls over to where he is and places his hand on her shoulder.

Cedric brightens and grips her shoulder as support as he tries to stand up. This time, he's successful, and he's squealing and laughing so loudly that Camilla and Amos come in to see what the noise is all about.

Camilla gives a similar squeal at the sight—Cedric looks adorable, like a baby deer on wobbly legs, leaning on a pouting Jessica.

Amos whips out a camera-like object out of what seems like nowhere and quickly snaps a picture.

"Our Ced's moving along fast, eh?" He states proudly.

"And Celia's being so kind and helping him out." Adds Camilla, determined not to leave Jessica out of the praise.

Amos grins widely and puts his arm around Camilla as they watch the two children.

Cedric's legs finally give in and he falls back onto the mattress.

Jessica thinks Cedric's the most adorable thing she's ever seen. His cheeks are ruddy with joy, and tiny fluffs of hair are in a messy disarray. Her heart tugs and she stays silent.

It's a quiet, family-like atmosphere, and she's too caught up in it. It bothers her, the familiarity with the Diggorys, because they feel like a family. Like the one she lost.

And then she realizes that she loves them. She, Jessica Smith, loves Cedric, Camilla, and Amos. They could be her family if she let them.

But at the same time, she feels like she's stolen the life of a would-be Celia.

Maybe Celia was supposed to be Jessica. Or maybe Celia was supposed to be someone else and Jessica's soul just slipped into the spot.

A conflicted throb makes her head spin and her chest twinges with a sharp feeling. Because she so badly wants to be Celia.

Can't she be both Jessica and Celia? Perhaps Jessica and Celia are one. If they ever could be.

The moment breaks when Cedric burps and his stomach rumbles loudly, jerking Jessica out of her thoughts.

Camilla laughs and runs to get their food.

When she comes back, Cedric is gnawing on a piece of their blanket leaving drool everywhere, and Jessica is determinedly trying to avoid all the slobbery saliva.

As Camilla spoon feeds the two some baby food, Jessica is too busy feeling thankful that magic makes mashed up food taste heavenly to dwell on any of her complicated emotions and thoughts.

And she's extremely grateful that Cedric ends up throwing up in the crib and not on her.

* * *

 **A/N: If it sounded like I was disregarding the gravity of drunk driving, I'm sorry—I am not trying to lessen the impact and tragedy of lives stolen by drunk driving. The fact that it is such a common type of accident nowadays is a tragedy within itself. I don't mean to offend anyone—I just portrayed it as an "average" death to suit the mindset of Jessica/Celia.**

 **I didn't mean to start another SI/OC story, but after going back and looking at my first story, I wasn't too happy with the writing. There are a lot of mistakes, so I wanted to give myself something else to practice on. And though my writing hasn't really improved, I wanted to try another timeline (and hopefully grow in my writing). And I liked this idea because Cedric Diggory too, died before his time. I'm definitely going to finish all my stories; I've just got a random update schedule because I write based on the inspiration I get.**

 **Please let me know if you have any concerns, and thanks for reading!**

 **I'm not good at A/Ns and I don't want them to take too much space from the story so this will (most likely) be the longest A/N.**


	2. Chapter 2

When Jessica and Cedric turn two, she gets her first taste of the unlimited abilities of magic.

It's their birthday, and Amos wants to invite all their neighbors in Ottery St. Catchpole. Thankfully, Camilla doesn't want a big party and prefers a celebration limited to family for their second birthday.

Jessica only has a vague idea of who their neighbors are, but she knows that she isn't ready to meet them all yet. Not when she's still adjusting to the idea of living in a world with magic and characters that are now people.

It's a fine day, and the weather is nearly perfect. One of the good things about living in Ottery St. Catchpole is that the "backyard" is huge. It's more of a small forest and an expansive field owned by the Diggorys. She and Cedric are still too young to go out and play in the forest, but she's satisfied with the interior of the house—it too, is vast in size, with plenty of rooms to keep Cedric and her busy.

Amos decides to hold their small celebration outside, and he's got the tables and chairs set up with just a few flicks of his wand. It's amazing, the way magic works. Jessica knows that if this had been her old life, it would've taken at least half an hour to set up. Camilla is in charge of the decorations and she's built some kind of veranda with shimmering streamers.

"What color?" Camilla asks them, ready for all the garnishing she needs to do.

"Yellow!" Chirps Cedric, looking awed by the whole thing.

"Blue?" Offers Jessica. She's always had more of an introverted personality, and being assertive is something she finds she needs to work on. Camilla must notice the issues as well, because she pats her on the head and smiles encouragingly.

In a flash, Camilla has all the furniture and decorations colored a pastel yellow and blue that mixes in nicely with the soft white of the rest of the tableware.

"Oooh!" Cheers Cedric, "Fishies! They like blue!"

Jessica has no idea what fish have to do with a birthday party, but Camilla just laughs and turns the whole thing into an underwater theme. In the middle of their backyard. Outside.

It's so realistic that Jessica swears she could be underwater. The air ripples with soft blue waves, and she can see schools of brightly colored fish swimming by her. There are even a few sharks and octopus, and the undersea plants swish by her feet.

The sky shimmers with the shifting quality of water, and Jessica feels like she's in the sea looking up at the sunlight sparkling through the water.

There's no doubt about it—Camilla Diggory is _talented_.

Cedric is so excited that he's trying to run around and touch all the fish, but keeps tripping because he hasn't quite mastered the art of walking.

Of course, when he finally catches a bold blue fish, he's a bit disappointed that it's nothing but air. The image flutters a bit when he puts his hand through it, and he's so confused that he keeps looking at his hand and then back at the fish.

Jessica giggles, the wonder and joy of the moment catching up to her. She feels like a proper two year old, enraptured by the marvels of magic, letting loose all her fears and doubts from her mind. She chases after Cedric, trying to catch all the fish. They even make a competition out of it, daring each other to find all the pink fish first.

There's a general air of satisfaction between everyone, and Jessica doesn't think she's ever been so amazed in all her lives.

Camilla watches them with a contented smile while Amos pulls out the plates of food that she prepared earlier. The plates float over to the table, and the silverware rearranges itself.

"Don't forget the drinks!" Calls Camilla from the cool shade of the veranda.

"Don't worry, Cam, I got this!" Amos answers, levitating a jar of juice over, with four glass cups.

They don't even need to worry about Jessica or Cedric accidentally breaking one of the glasses because magic can easily fix that in a second.

It's kind of unfair, the life that witches and wizards lead, compared to "normal" people who have to do everything by hand. And once something is broken, it can't be repaired.

Jessica can remember the only time that she and Cedric got sick, and they only had to suffer through a few hours of the cold before drinking a potion that had them feeling better in two hours. It had barely lasted a day, and when Jessica had gotten sick in her previous life, it'd taken her a full week to get over it.

The whole thing has her wondering about the implications for the non-magical community if the magical community shared its medical miracles.

Maybe cancer wouldn't even exist.

But there's nothing that doesn't have its consequence—Jessica knows that the wizarding community has its own diseases that come as a result of the magical world's influences. Though all of the fatal diseases like Dragon Pox have a cure.

There's a kind of selfish superiority Jessica can feel within the magical world that separates them from the non-magical world. It irks her, but she can't do anything about it at the moment. Not when she has the body of a two year old. And not when she's not even sure she wants to. Because it'd mean she's finally accepted the life she's living, and that's something that hits too close for comfort.

"Lia! 'M gonna get the pink fishies!" Taunts Cedric. He breaks her out of her semi-frozen state and she quickly pulls herself out of her ever-contemplative thoughts.

If only she didn't have the mind of a twenty year old. Life could've been so much easier if she'd just forgotten her past life before being reborn.

"Ced, Lia! The food's ready! You can play with the fish later!" Camilla ushers them over to the table and wipes their sweaty faces with a napkin.

"Now what do you do before a meal?" She asks them, trying to look stern.

"Wash your hands!" Cedric raised his arm in the air.

"That's right, Ced! So what are you going to do now?"

"Wash my hands!" Cedric answered eagerly.

"That's right!" Camilla smiles proudly. "What about you, Lia?"

"I'm gonna wash my hands." Jessica tells her, a lot more quietly than Cedric.

"Now off you go." Camilla pushes them gently in the direction of the door to inside the house so they can toddle off to the bathroom.

Cedric pushes the door open and drags the stepping stool up to the sink. He fumbles a bit with the faucet before scrubbing his hands under the water. He's just about to stop when Jessica halts his arm.

"Don't forget the soap."

"Okayyyy." Whines Cedric, and grabs the bar of soap to rub it onto his hands.

His hands are too small to grip the bar and it slides out of his hands and into the sink.

"Lia!" He keeps trying to grab the bar and fails, so Jessica steps onto the stool to help him.

She grabs the bar. "You grab it too." Cedric reaches down and grasps the bar as well, and the two pull it up with the combination of their four hands.

They slather on their hands as best they can and Jessica sets the bar back onto the holder. She and Cedric wash the soap off and she passes him the towel before he stretches too far and falls over.

She keeps her eyes glued to the stream of water running out of the faucet; she hates the bathroom mirror on top of the sink.

It's not just the bathroom mirror—she hates all mirrors. They don't feel right. Seeing a young child's face when she should be seeing her own—

Cedric sloppily dries his hands on a hand towel, spraying water everywhere.

"Done?" Asks Jessica, hopping off the stool.

"Yup!" Cedric climbs down and grabs her hand, pulling them both back outside.

Once they settle down at the table, Cedric grips his spoon with chubby fingers and begins to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth. Jessica is a lot more delicate and tries to hold her spoon properly, with the heavy metal teetering between her first and second fingers.

A lot of food drips down Cedric's mouth and onto his bib, and though Jessica tries not to do the same, she finds herself unable to hold the amount of food she puts in her mouth as well. At least her teething went well without too many complications, or she would've still been spoon-fed baby mash.

Jessica tries not to stuff herself too much because there's a brilliant cake waiting for her. She doesn't know how much of it she'll be able to eat, but she's going to save as much space as she can without Camilla noticing and forcing her to eat more food before dessert.

"Happy birthday!" Amos lights all the candles with a flourish, and Camilla sings the birthday song. Jessica is surprised that the song found its way to wizarding culture, but waits patiently for the song to end so she can get a slice of cake.

"Cake!" Cedric completely disregards the fact that they've just turned two and turns his full undivided two-year old attention span onto the mouth-watering dessert in front of him.

There's a collective chuckle around the table as Cedric tries to cram cake in his mouth, only to have his face smeared with cream.

Jessica eats her cake like a dainty princess, trying to keep herself as clean as she can be—she's already covered with food, and she doesn't need more on her clothes.

A faint buzz echoes in the back of her head, and she somehow senses the incoming move before her brain can register it—Cedric reaches forward with a hand covered in cream and smudges it all over Jessica's face.

"Cedric!" Gasps Camilla with a laugh. Amos bursts with mirth, and he's already snapping a picture of the moment while wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

Jessica sits, dumbfounded, and just stares at them with wide eyes.

 _What?_ Is the only thing she can think, and she reaches up with an unbelieving hand to touch her cold face.

The corner of her mouth twitches despite her irritation at her ruined clothes and oily face, and she narrows her eyes mischievously.

She grabs a handful of her own cake and throws it at Cedric, who gives a thrilled giggle when it smacks him right in the middle of his face.

It's like one of those scenes she only sees on television, and before she knows it, everyone's throwing cake at each other.

For some reason, she expected the moment to move in slow-motion, and remain black and white in her memory. But it's not, and everything moves so quickly that she hardly knows what she's doing except laughing and feeling like she's on top of the world.

They're all panting and they've somehow moved from the table onto the grass, where they're all lying on their backs and facing the sky. Their clothes are dirty and their faces are covered with cake, but none of them can find it in themselves to care.

The bright blue sky reflects back at them, the image distorted by the ripples of the fantasy ocean Camilla created. A tiny pink fish swims above them, and Cedric points to it excitedly.

"Pink fishie!"

The moment is a whole; a moving snapshot capturing the joy of the world and focusing it into a single feeling that surrounds the family.

Celia grins. "You win, Ced."

Cedric's face morphs into a proud smile, and he nods like he understands all the mysteries of the unknown.

"I win, Lia."

She doesn't know when it happened, or how it happened, but she's got a family. A family that she loves, and loves her in return. She's a daughter and a twin sister.

Maybe it isn't so terrible to be Celia Diggory.

And maybe she's Celia Diggory, with Jessica Smith forming her past; both halves to make something that was once broken complete.

She's luckier than most two year old girls—she's got two families that love her.

That's more than enough, and she's so, so grateful for it. The sky seems to expand, stretching infinitely above her.

"Happy birthday, Celia." She whispers to herself, too softly for anyone to hear.

As if on cue, Cedric turns to her. "Happy birthday to Lia and me!"

Her throat burns, and she blinks away the gentle tears that fill her eyes.

Camilla tucks the twins under her arms, and Amos watches them with a soft expression in his eyes.

It's a picture perfect moment. And it feels just perfect too. Even if they're covered in cake.

* * *

Her memories of her past life are like faded pictures, tinged sepia.

The ache still burns, and her past life's family still haunts her thoughts.

But the pain is slowly fading, and the new memories she's created are slowly scarring over the gaping wounds of her heart.

Unfortunately, with her fuzzy memories, comes a loss of knowledge. Knowledge that she needs.

She's read the _Harry Potter_ series, of course, but that feels like lifetimes ago. The details are too much for her to remember; the only thing of importance that stands out in stark contrast from everything else is the Triwizard Tournament and Cedric's death.

And that, precisely, is her problem.

Cedric will die.

It's a terrifying thought, because even though she's only lived a little over two and a half years in this world, she's become so attached to her family that losing Cedric would be unbearable.

Another gaping hole to match the slowly healing one in her chest.

She can't let him die—she won't. But it's aggravating because she _can't do anything_.

In the grand scheme of things, Celia is just a two-year old with a vague understanding of the future of the magical world. An average girl with barely helpful tidbits of what's to come.

She's at a loss of what to do. It's hard to accept, but at this stage, she doesn't see anything she can do.

So she watches over Cedric the best she can, like a fussy mama bear protecting her cubs.

It's not much, but it's the best she can do.

Cedric deserves a future, deserves everything that she lost in her previous life.

"Celia?" Her mum's hand gently lands on her shoulder, her touch the soft brush of a feather.

Celia's grey eyes are dark with helplessness and fear.

"What's wrong?" Camilla strokes her daughter's hair away from her face. Celia leans into her hand.

"I'm scared." She whispers.

The admission relieves a heavy weight on Celia's chest that she hadn't known was there.

"Why?" Camilla pulls Celia into her lap and cradles her as if she was a newborn baby again.

"I don't want anything bad to happen."

There's a profound sort of feeling that encapsulates the mother and daughter.

A strange, terrifying emotion grips Camilla's heart.

Celia has always been _different_. Always watching her surroundings with sharp eyes, keeping quiet but knowing more than she should. Camilla's pretty sure her daughter is a genius, a rare kind that sees the world not from rose-tinted glasses, but from a range too wide for someone her age. But she's too young for the uncertainties that surround the magical world, too young to understand a country struggling to recover from a debilitating war.

"Who told you that something bad will happen?"

"I read it. In a book." It's a short answer that's straight to the point, but Camilla can't ever recall having such a book in their house.

"Really? What's it called?" She probes her daughter for more, sensing that there's more than that.

"I forgot." Celia shrugs almost helplessly, but Camilla hears the secret behind her words, and the intelligent gleam in her eyes.

No matter how badly Celia wants to reveal her secret, she isn't ready. She wonders if she'll ever be ready. What if they hate her for her past life?

"Celia, what do you think will happen?"

"I dunno. Bad things." Camilla can tell that her daughter is being vague on purpose, to avoid the subject.

She takes Celia's small hands in hers. "Maybe bad things will happen. We'll never know. But there's too much to live for to dwell on that. No matter what happens, we will face it as a family. Don't be scared, because you've got Cedric, your dad, and me."

The concept is too complicated for a normal two year old to understand, but somehow, Camilla knows—she just knows—that Celia will understand.

Celia winds her short arms around Camilla's neck and buries her face into her chest. "Okay."

They've got a long way to go, but it's the first step. Camilla returns the hug just as tightly, wondering what kind of child Celia is, what kind of person she will grow to be. Such maturity at a young age is frightening, because she doesn't want her daughter to be burdened with the life of a genius. She keeps the knowledge to herself, because Amos is too busy with Cedric to notice his daughter's extreme intelligence, and that's fine with her.

Camilla knows that Amos loves his children equally, but is prone to bragging and over-exaggerating. Such exposure could damage Celia, whose shy and reserved personality naturally avoids the spotlight.

Perhaps she's neglecting Cedric, but she knows that he can handle it, even thrive in it. She's got faith in him.

Celia falls asleep in her arms, and Camilla gently places her down on her bed in her shared bedroom with Cedric, before tucking her in with an affectionate but worried smile.

She'll have to watch her daughter more closely from now on.

* * *

Sometimes, Celia forgets that she's only three. Which sucks, because she isn't supposed to draw attention to herself. Or at least, she doesn't want to.

But her mum's been watching her when she thinks she isn't looking, and thankfully, she hasn't called Celia out on anything.

Celia's content to be the overshadowed child in the family; she's perfectly happy to allow Cedric to get the praise he deserves.

And if she happens to be pushing along his development by teaching him whenever she can—which is most of the time because they're always together—well, no one suspects her, so it's fine.

He's a fast learner, soaking things up like a sponge, catching onto Celia's words like a house on fire.

"She goed to the store."

"No, she _went_ to the store."

Cedric furrows his eyebrows. "She went to the store."

"Good job!" Celia smiles at him and he beams.

She likes to think she's a good sister. And she'd like nothing more than for Cedric to become the best he can be, and even better.

Amos is at the Ministry, working extra hours to try to get a promotion from the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch Sr. Their mum is left to watch the house and take care of Cedric and Celia.

However, they're mostly left to their own devices, because Camilla trusts Celia to watch them both, and because Camilla has a new stay-home job to support their family of four.

The job is a simple one, just a researcher role for St. Mungo's. The hospital is always looking for new cures and new spellwork for its Healers, something that Camilla's expertise with charms and herbology is sorely needed for.

Amos' job is enough to keep the family stable, but not enough to give his children the education and opportunities he wants them to have.

Camilla's job keeps her busy, but she's placed enough wards and detection spells to warn her if something is about to go wrong.

Celia drags _The Tales of the Beedle Bard_ over to where Cedric is sitting and cracks it open. The stories are a bit too advanced for him at the moment, but it's good practice for his developing reading skills.

"Wanna read _The Fountain of Fair Fortune or Babbity Rabitty_ and _Her Cackling Stump_?"

"Babbitty Rabitty!" Cedric looks intrigued by the amusing title.

Celia cracks the book open to the right chapter and begins to point to each word for Cedric to read out loud.

It's a long process, but it's worth it, because by the time they turn four, Cedric's already graduated from picture books and is onto more complex chapter books.

Amos is delighted by Cedric's swift progress, lauding him as the prodigy of the family.

Even though Cedric tries to tell him that Celia helped him, Amos waves it off as his son's loyalty to his sister and Celia watches contentedly from the shadows.

Her mum never forgets to praise her, and although she doesn't need it, it makes her satisfied and happy.

There's an obvious favoritism between the two parents—Amos with Cedric and Camilla with Celia. But they both love their children the same; they just have different attentions for them.

* * *

Because Cedric and Celia are now four, Amos decides it's time to start teaching them magic. The twins had been raised with magic all around them, but they hadn't learned to properly harness it yet. Amos sees a bright future for his children and is more than happy to start them early.

The weekends are now filled with magic lessons, and even though the two don't have wands yet, they have plenty to learn about the world around them and the accidental magic that they unknowingly harness.

Magic in children under eleven is disregarded and isn't subject to any laws—if it were subject to law, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would be overloaded, and Amos uses that to his advantage.

"Close your eyes." They're outside on the grass, and thankfully, there's a tree to shade them from the hot sun.

Cedric and Celia close their eyes.

"Now, think of the color white. Let the only thing you can see be white."

It's a pretty difficult task, and Celia only sees black and the dulled glare of sunlight behind her closed eyelids. Cedric isn't doing much better and he's sprawled on the ground, concentrating so hard on the task that he looks constipated.

Celia giggles as she peeks out from a tiny crack from behind her eyelid.

"Celia!" She looks up to see her dad frowning down at her. "Stop playing around."

"Sorry." She quickly mutters and squeezes her eyes shut.

For some reason, the whole thing is hilarious, and Celia bursts out laughing before she can stop herself. Practicing magic isn't even that funny, but she feels like she's in some kind of crappy movie where she has to "feel the power inside" of her.

She rolls onto her stomach, cackling, and she can't stop no matter how much she tries.

"Celia! What are you doing?" Her dad's voice is tinged with anger at his ruined lesson.

Cedric bursts out laughing as well and joins Celia on the ground.

Amos sighs and rubs his head.

"Fine, fine, have it your way." He mutters, and plops down into a plastic chair he conjures up.

As the days had passed, Celia had found herself feeling lighter and lighter. Smiles came more easily, and she felt pure joy from the bottom of her soul. It was as if she had been reborn again after her second birthday.

She is almost the person she had been, almost. She finds herself tucking away the darkness that had consumed her, rediscovering the sense of normality. She's totally fine with living an average life, as long as she's happy, and her family's happy.

Life in a magical world isn't exactly what one would call "average", but she's become so accustomed to it that she finds magic the standard and the norm.

It's no longer surprising to see floating plates or the couch changing colors every week, or the shifting ceiling above her that changes to match what she wants to see.

Being born into the magical world isn't anything too crazy—it's just like being assimilated into a different culture.

"Lunchtime!" Calls her mum, who increases the volume of her voice to reach the backyard with a simple _Sonorus_.

Cedric jumps up and cheers. "Food!" He dashes over to the table and Celia follows him, grinning brightly.

A good thing about the magical world is that food is in a seemingly endless supply.

With magic, it's a lot easier to grow crops quickly, and there's no need for pesticides or hormones to keep the plants ripe and healthy.

Everything is so much more simple and easy compared to the Muggle world that Celia's surprised witches and wizards don't look like the people from the Disney movie Wall-E.

Cedric swings his feet happily, legs dangling from the chair. He's clutching a fork and a spoon in each hand, leaning forward with anticipation.

The food smells and looks _wonderful_ , and Celia doesn't think she's ever eaten anything bad tasting in the wizarding world. Though most of the food is similar to Muggle food, it somehow tastes a lot better.

After their lunch, it's back to training—they haven't really gotten anywhere, and Amos had been excepting a lot more out of them.

"Listen and follow the directions this time, okay?"

Celia nods seriously and Cedric stares up at their dad with an expectant face.

"Close your eyes again. Can you feel a tingling feeling?"

"Not really." Cedric says bluntly. Celia lets out a breath of amusement but doesn't say anything.

"Cedric." Amos gives him a stern look.

"But I'm telling the truth! Mum says we always have to tell the truth." There's a hurt expression on his four year old face.

Amos frowns a bit and rubs his brow. "Let's try this again. Don't say anything until you feel something."

"What if we can't feel anything? Do we have to sit here for the rest of the day?" Celia asks meekly. She really can't feel anything, and she doesn't really think his instructions are going to work for a pair of four year olds. It's somewhat like meditation and it's not that easy for kids to empty their minds.

"Yes." Amos doesn't look too happy with her question and stands there with his arms crossed.

It's so quiet that Celia can feel the air gently stirring and the occasional chirps of a few nearby birds.

"I think I got it!" Cedric exclaims, abruptly breaking the silence.

"Really?" Amos' face takes a one-eighty degree turn and looks excited.

"Here, take this." He passes Cedric a waxy green leaf from the tree. "You think you can turn it red?"

"Okay." Cedric shuts his eyes and concentrates.

Celia feels a strange feeling of seriousness wash over her boredom and blinks with surprise.

She definitely hadn't been feeling that fixated on the task, but somehow the feeling of intense concentration mixes in with her own emotions.

 _Weird._ She thinks, but before she can puzzle over it any further, her attention is caught by a loud shout.

"Good job! That's my boy!" Amos is brimming with elation and ruffles Cedric's hair proudly.

Cedric is holding up a now scarlet leaf and is examining it with wonder, like he hadn't believed that he could ever be capable of something like that.

"Lia, Lia, look! It's red! I'm gonna show mum!"

Celia gives him a genuine smile. "That's great, Ced! You're really good at this."

"Thanks!" He's practically jumping up and down with excitement and sprints inside to show their mum.

Amos still looks overjoyed when he moves closer to Celia.

"Think you can do what your brother just did?"

Celia shrugs uncertainly. "I don't know."

He passes her a similar leaf to the one Cedric had been clutching.

There's no change in her; no revelation, but she can feel a tiny stirring feeling near her chest. Or is it her chest? She can't tell, but it rises to match the immense delight she feels for her brother's accomplishment.

The leaf doesn't change colors but rises from her hand to float in the air, hovering near her head.

"That's great, Lia!" Praises her dad, "Can you make it red like Cedric did?"

A tiny sting of dismay runs through her at her dad's significantly less enthusiastic reaction. The leaf falls back into her hand and she grips it tightly.

It slowly turns a faint red from the stem, the color rising gradually. But it stops halfway and Celia is left holding a half red and half green leaf.

Her failure doesn't bother her too much, but the look on her dad's face is more than enough to bring a sting of tears to her eyes. She knows she's always been average, but it's a lot harder to live with someone obviously more talented than she is.

There's no burn of jealousy for Cedric; only shame and acceptance at her lack of skills.

"That's okay." Amos pats her shoulder with a heavy sense of disappointment, "You can try again next time."

"Okay." She says quietly, and goes inside.

She's still clutching the leaf in her hand when Cedric sees her.

"You did it!" He says happily, only seeing the bottom part of the leaf that she'd turned red.

Celia shakes her head dejectedly and shows him the top of the leaf, a shining bright green.

"That's okay! You did really good, Lia!" Cedric takes her leaf and puts it with his. "See? It looks just like mine. Except yours is prettier. So you did better."

A soft smile tugs at the edge of her lips. "It's 'you did well', Ced." But she lets him keep the leaf and she feels a lot lighter when they settle down in the living room with another book.

The book is half her size, and it's so big that she has to haul it across the floor with both hands. Bold silver letters lined with gold cover the front of the book, and it reads _Dragons_.

Reading all the stories in their house is a great introduction to the different types of magical creatures that exist, and Celia finds herself wanting to meet a dragon as she flips through the pages.

Because who doesn't? The Antipodean Opaleye dragon in the picture book is _stunning_. Its pearly scales glitter like cream colored diamonds and its eyes are a shimmering swirl of color that glow mesmerizingly.

The thing about magical picture books is that they make everything so _real_ ; so when Celia touches the page, she can feel the rough ridges of the dragon's scales. The dragon turns its head to look at her, opening its mouth in a proud roar, and its hot breath ghosts over her face. Its wings spread across an entire two pages; the sheer size and power of the wings make Celia feel as if she's being engulfed.

Celia's breath catches in her throat, and she wonders what it must be like to fly on its back, soaring over towering mountains.

"You wanna dragon?" Cedric asks curiously, somehow sensing her awe.

"Yeah." Her eyes are glued to the page, and he peers at it with interest.

"I like that one." He points to the dragon next to it; a Swedish Short-Snout.

Celia can see what he finds attractive about it—its scales are a gleaming sliver-blue that reminds her of a stormy ocean illuminated by the sun.

"Wait." She narrows her eyes at the picture. "Doesn't that look like dad's gloves? You know, the ones that he only wears to the fancy parties at the Ministry he goes to every year?"

"Huh?" Cedric stares at the dragon, trying to remember what the gloves look like.

"Dad's got dragonhide gloves! They're so expensive." Even with their dad's recent promotion, Celia's surprised that their family can even afford that kind of luxury. Dragonhide is like the Russian sable fur of the Muggle world.

"D'they have to kill the dragons to make gloves?" Asks Cedric with a kind of angry curiosity.

"I dunno. Maybe." There's actually not much that Celia knows about dragons—or any of the magical creatures, for that matter.

Cedric frowns. "That's not good. I don't think the dragons should die."

Celia nods with agreement, "Can't they make other types of gloves?"

The two glance at each other and come to an unspoken agreement. They'll ask their dad about it later. But Celia can't help but feel suspicion rising in her at the thought of the gloves.

They go back to the picture books open in front of them, and Celia flips through the rest of the dragon book quickly, only interested in the Antipodean Opaleye.

She sighs heavily when she finishes. "I'm bored."

Cedric is busy trying to read a story about goblins that thankfully portrays them from an unbiased perspective, but looks up when Celia flops on the ground, arms spread out ungracefully.

"Maybe we can ask mum to take us to the village." He suggests, closing the book.

"Does she have time?" Wonders Celia, reflecting on their mum's packed schedule.

"Of course! C'mon, don't you want to go to the park?"

There's a beautiful park in the middle of the village that all the local children gather at. It's one of the only places the twins get to interact with Muggles, and they rarely get to go out because of their mum doesn't have enough time, and they're too young to go alone.

"Okay, okay."

Cedric dashes for Camilla's room while Celia lags behind, keeping an even pace.

"Mum!" He thrusts the door open with both hands; thankfully the door was slightly ajar or he would've slammed into it headfirst.

Camilla looks up from the paper she's writing, surprised by the abrupt entrance.

"What's wrong?"

"Can we go to the park?" Cedric looks as if he's about to bounce out of his clothes.

Camilla blinks slowly, as if she's forgotten there was even a park.

"The Muggle park? That's fine, I'll just let your dad know so he knows where we are."

Instantly, Cedric's face falls into a sad pout. "Aww, why can't dad go too?" Cedric's the closest to Amos, even if he's often too busy working to spend a lot of time with the twins.

It's Camilla who's spent the most time with them, so Celia doesn't really feel an urge for Amos to come along as long as Camilla goes with them.

"You know he's busy with work, Ced." Their mum tells Cedric gently, smoothing his fluffy blonde hair.

"Okay…" He says, disappointed. "Dad's always busy with work. Maybe next time, then."

A flash of crushed dismay flares in Celia, but it's gone so quickly she can't help but wonder if she imagined it.

She doesn't think their dad will come next time either, so she's not disappointed at all, but she keeps that thought to herself. Mostly, she just feels a slightly bitter acceptance.

Cedric glances at her, looking confused for a quick moment, and then follows their mum out the door like a baby duck. And like she always does, Celia immediately follows Cedric, so they waddle in a line, trailing after their mum.

When they walk to the park, however, Camilla takes both of them by the hand on each side, and they move forward, side by side.

The park is around a fifteen minute walk from their house—which is mostly due to the twins' stubby legs—and the path to the park is almost like a park itself. Except the path is lined with just soft grass, strong trees, and bright flowers.

On the edge of the village where they live, there's nothing manmade except for the other wizarding families' houses. But when they reach the village square, it's like stepping into a completely different world.

Ottery St. Catchpole is a quaint little village, with antique type buildings, all one or two stories short, painted yellow and pink. It's a bit behind the modern architecture styles and time, but it's been around for so long that no one really notices.

"Mum!" Cedric tugs on Camilla's hand excitedly, "Can we buy that? Please?" He points to a stuffed animal in the window of the toy shop. It's a small golden retriever, and it's the cutest stuffed animal Celia's ever seen.

"Mum." She breathes, enraptured by the stuffed animal tugging her closer to the toy shop.

Both Celia and Cedric press their faces against the window, staring at the stuffed animal as if they can magically make it appear in their hands.

"Alright, alright." Camilla laughs exasperatedly, when the twins refuse to budge.

They go into the store, and the shopkeeper looks up when he hears the door open.

"Ah, Camilla! Long time no see. Been busy with these little buggers?" The shopkeeper gives the twins a fond look. They've been to the shop a few times, and Cedric is such a sweet, angelic child that the shopkeeper took to him immediately. Just like everyone else in the village.

"They're always keeping me busy." Camilla smiles at them before greeting Mr. Jackson properly.

"Hi Mr. Jackson." The twins chorus. Celia moves closer to Cedric, suddenly feeling shy under the shopkeeper's scrutiny. He isn't exactly a stranger, but Celia's never really been comfortable around people except her family.

She's always been a shy person, and the semi-isolation of their family from the village has just increased her social anxiety.

Spotting the stuffed golden retriever, Cedric races towards it, gripping Celia's hand and tugging her along. Camilla and Mr. Jackson watch them as they make small talk, and Mr. Jackson divulges the latest pieces of gossip.

"Puppy!" Cedric grasps the stuffed dog and hands it to Celia before grabbing a similar one for himself. She feels a rush of affection for her brother—he always thinks of her first.

Celia had no idea that Cedric likes dogs so much (until now), but they've always liked the same thing so it doesn't really come as a surprise to her.

Mr. Jackson rings up the purchases for them and waves goodbye as they leave.

In one hand, Cedric clutches his new toy, and in the other, holds Celia's hand. Celia's doing the same, and their mum beams at them.

"I wish I'd brought the camera." She regrets. "You two look so cute!"

Celia blushes, embarrassed, but Cedric just laughs. Sometimes, their mum can take the twin thing a bit too far. They do practically everything together, and their mum even makes them wear matching clothes. Even during Halloween, they wear matching costumes, like peanut butter and jelly.

It's super corny and Celia sometimes bemoans being born into such a dorky family, but she loves them all the same. Though she really, really doesn't want to be peanut butter for Halloween again. That didn't turn out very well.

(She basically looked like a brown lump, and because they were a magical family, and everything had to be magic, it even smelled and felt like peanut butter. And it was incredibly sticky. Worst of all, Cedric was jelly, and he'd left slimy purple goo everywhere he walked. The house smelled of peanut butter and jelly for days).

The three of them head towards the park, and Celia can hear the distant sounds of excited laughter and exclamations. It suddenly fills her with trepidation, and she tightens her grip on Cedric with fear.

She's not ready to meet so many people. Her whole life as a Diggory, she'd been inside the house with minimal interactions with strangers, spending all of her time with Cedric. The only children she'd been around were the Weasley brothers, but they only came over occasionally so it was just her and Cedric in the end.

Cedric squeezes her hand in return, and flashes her a comforting smile, as if somehow sensing her anxiety.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." He tells her, smiling sweetly. Celia nearly bursts out in laughter at the irony of the situation—she's the one who's supposed to be protecting him—but she feels a lot better as they approach the crowded park.

The village is large, but everyone still knows the others so well that private affairs are public matters.

"Camilla!" Greets a short woman with black hair. Celia racks her memory for a name and vaguely remembers meeting her during one of their rare trips to the village square.

"Hey Fiona, it's good to see you! How are you doing? How's Janet?" Camilla moves forward to greet her, leaving Cedric and Celia to their own devices.

The playground is just a playground—it's nothing special, but somehow, it intimidates Celia. It looms over her, with twists of metal bars and crowding children. She's so small that everything looks twice its usual size from when she was Jessica.

Being four gives you leeway for a lot of things like accidentally breaking plates or randomly running around the house in a fit of energy, but it also sucks because you're tiny.

Celia's so short that she can hardly do anything without help. She wants to go back to where Camilla is but before she can turn back, she's moving.

Cedric has no hesitations and is pulling her forward.

"Hi!" He says brightly to a group of kids around their age sitting around a sand lot, "Can we play with you?"

The kids look up at them, intrigued by unfamiliar faces. Celia and Cedric hardly come to the Muggle playground—their house is more than enough to keep them entertained—so they don't know the neighborhood kids very well.

"Who're you?" A boy with black hair and sharp blue eyes asks them suspiciously.

"I'm Cedric and this is Celia." Cedric is unwaveringly cheerful, and he doesn't seem affected at all by the distrusting looks and awkward atmosphere.

The kids take this as a cue and introduce themselves one by one.

"I'm Jordan." The black haired boy introduces. He acts like the leader of the group, and the rest of the kids seem to be following his lead.

"Hi! I'm Marcia." A girl with curly blonde hair waves from where she's sitting in the sand.

The girl next to her says quietly, "I'm Joy."

After her, the last two boys in the group speak. "I'm Andy." "And I'm Grant."

Celia and Cedric settle down in the sand lot with them, looking at the sand castles they're building.

"It's girls versus boys." Marcia tells them happily, pointing to the opposite sides where a sandcastle stands. "So we're gonna see who builds the better one and then we're gonna have a war."

"Cool!" Cheers Cedric, "Good luck." He lets go of Celia's hand, patting her head, and moves to the boy's side.

With Cedric gone, it feels like there's a huge, horrifyingly empty gap.

Damn. She's so socially incompetent it makes her feel ashamed, but she can't help it. Celia clutches her stuffed dog to her chest and awkwardly turns to face Marcia and Joy.

"I like your dog." Joy says quietly, "What's its name?"

Celia offers her a shy smile. "His name is Jack." It's Jessica's brother's name.

Joy gives her a shy smile in return. Celia feels like they'll be great friends.

Marcia grins widely, as bright and powerful as the sun. "Alright you two, let's win this!"

They settle down in front of the partially built sandcastle, and start slathering sand onto it, piling each scoop after the other.

There's a sense of ease surrounding them, and although Celia still keeps a small distance from them, she can feel that space closing as she talks with Marcia and Joy.

They're young and less mature than Cedric, but their childish innocence is oddly comforting, and they chatter about the wildest things.

 _A child's imagination should never be underestimated._ Celia thinks almost fondly, as Marcia tells her and Joy about the unicorn she found in her backyard. Of course, unicorns exist, but Muggles don't know that, so Celia can't say anything.

She finds herself wishing Marcia could meet a unicorn though, as Marcia babbles enthusiastically. Marcia's so excited about unicorns that she accidentally knocks down half of their sandcastle as she gestures.

Joy's jaw drops and Celia can't help but give an affectionate laugh.

"Oh no!" Marcia shrieks, frantically trying to fix her mistake, "I'm so sorry!" The sand slides down with each desperate scoop. "What do I do?" Marcia wails, "We're going to lose!"

They're running out of time, and Celia glances over to the boy's side. Their sandcastle is two thirds of the way finished.

Joy and Marcia look distraught at the prospect of losing, and Marcia looks as if she's about to burst into tears. They're still shoving piles of sand onto the deformed lump of a sandcastle they have, and it just gets worse and worse.

Celia doesn't care about losing, but she feels a sting of sympathy for the two girls. Closing her eyes, she wonders if her magic will work. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

 _Please,_ she thinks, _please. Please help me do this, please help me build a sandcastle._

She doesn't know who she's talking to but somehow, it works. She's begging with all her might and soul, hoping that the sandcastle will actually be a sandcastle so the two girl's dreams and hopes won't be crushed.

The sand slowly starts to rise, moving and twisting into forms and shapes. Joy gasps and jumps backwards, landing on her bum as she stares at the sand in awe. Marcia gapes and doesn't move, enraptured by the whole experience.

A light, bubbly feeling flickers in Celia's chest, and her fingers tingle. The sand continues to shift and pile, and when it stops moving, there's a sandcastle. A _real_ castle, with towers and windows and doors and intricately carved designs.

 _Holy shit_. It's an incredible and indescribable feeling and the only thing that Celia can think is _I did this?_

Celia feels a jolt of surprise that she knows isn't hers, and she glances at Cedric on instinct. He's staring at her, openmouthed, and then grins with pride.

The boy's sand castle is a hill of sand compared to theirs.

Joy is speechless, and stares at the sandcastle in awe.

Marcia breaks out in thrilled squeals. "Woah! Did you see that? Joy, Celia, did you see that? The sand moved by itself! Do you think a fairy helped us build the castle?"

Celia feels a burst of accomplishment and elation upon Joy and Marcia's reactions.

"I'm not sure it was a fairy, Mar, but that was so cool." Joy's eyes are shining, and she moves closer to the sandcastle.

And then terror slams into Celia. What if the adults had seen? She looks around her wildly, trying to see if anyone noticed the moving sand.

She heaves a sigh of relief—the adults are either too busy talking to each other or watching their own children.

The boys dash over, interrupting Marcia's rant of excitement.

"How?" Demands Jordan, looking angry. "How did you guys build that?"

"Yeah, it's a real castle." Andy stares at their castle in amazement.

"I guess this means we win." Joy says smugly.

Marcia bursts into a fit of giggles, "Yup! We won!" She turns to Joy and Celia and gives them both a high five.

Grant and Jordan look properly disgruntled and Andy just gives them a congratulations.

Cedric sidles up to Celia. "Lia!" He whispers delightedly, "That was magic!"

Letting out a breathless smile, Celia nods. "Yeah."

She'd actually done something. By herself. And Joy and Marcia were so happy that Celia couldn't stop their infectious mood.

Cedric hugs her tightly and grins. "I can't wait to tell mum!"

"Let's get their castle!" Marcia sounds a war cry and Celia breaks away from Cedric, following her and Joy to behind their castle.

Marcia starts packing the sand into balls using the bucket of water. The boys stare in horror before dashing back to their side, ready to reciprocate the attack.

Before they know it, it's an all-out war. With sand balls. Sand goes flying everywhere and Celia's too busy throwing sand balls to think about how messy they'll all be when it's over. Sand hits her, flying everywhere like confetti.

Joy is having trouble packing the sand balls (she's basically just grabbing tiny fistfuls of sand), and their ammo is dwindling to almost nothing, so Celia bends down next to her and concentrates while Marcia throws the last of their sand balls.

Celia squeezes her eyes shut, gripping sand in her hand. When she opens her eyes, the sand is moving by itself again, forming into sand balls and safely replenishing their supply.

Marcia gives a shout of glee—Celia swears it's a sadistic sort of glee mixed with childish glee—and Joy gives a loud, unrestrained laugh.

"Hey!" Celia hears heated shout, "That's not fair! How is that even possible?"

Grant's pointing at their magical sand and Jordan stares at them with scrutinizing frustration. Andy and Cedric are grinning, and then, all of a sudden, the sand on their side begins to move.

Cedric gives Celia a cheeky smirk—she takes it as a challenge—and then all of sudden, there's sand flying everywhere and all the children are just literally throwing sand at each other now. There's no lag time for making the sand balls, so it's unstoppable barrage, with a never ending supply of sand balls.

It's breathless laughter and excited screams everywhere, and in the midst of all the chaos, Celia feels like an actual child. Like she's not an adult suffocated in the skin of a child, like she has nothing to worry about, like the world's perfect.

Eventually, they're all too tired to keep going, and they all lay on their backs, gasping for air, still giggling and laughing. Celia's covered from head to toe in sand, but she can't bring herself to care. It itches like hell though.

And that's how their mums find them—slathered in sand and lying on the ground, chattering happily. There's a sense of camarderie between them that wasn't there before.

"What happened here?" A woman asks amusedly, looking down at the bedraggled group.

"Hey mum!" Marcia sits up and grins. "It was _awesome_." She opens her mouth to say more but her mum cuts her off with a fond sigh.

"How did you even get so dirty? The laundry will be a disaster. You can tell me as we're going home, okay? It's getting late." She ends with an apologetic look and takes Marcia's hand.

"Bye!" Marcia waves enthusiastically, "See you guys tomorrow!"

The rest of the group scatters after that, and everyone goes their respective ways after waving goodbye.

Camilla takes Cedric and Celia's hands as they walk home, and both are clutching their now sandy stuffed dogs. After they're far enough down the path and out of earshot, Camilla gives them both a proud smile.

She cleans them (and their stuffed animal) with a simple _Scourgify_. "I saw you two using magic." Her eyes twinkle. "And I'm so proud; that was amazing."

"Thanks mum!" Cedric's face is pleased, "That was so fun—can we go again?"

Camilla casts Celia a curious glance. "What about you?"

"I liked it." She answers quietly, positively glowing with happiness.

"Then we'll go again tomorrow." Camilla ruffles their hair and Cedric gives a loud whoop.

"Mum…" Celia says after a while, furrowing her brow with worry. "What if the adults saw us using magic?"

Mostly, young Muggle children exposed to magic keep it secret or tell their parents about it, but they're so young that none of the adults take them seriously. So Celia knows Camilla doesn't mind their sand ball fight with the Muggle children. The adults seeing, however, is a totally different story.

"Don't worry," Camilla brushes the side of Celia's face gently, "I cast an illusion charm that hid the magic from the outside."

Celia heaves a sigh of relief and the tension eases from her body. So _that's_ why no one noticed.

"Oh, Celia." Celia looks up to see her mum giving her a strange look. It's a mixture of sadness and determination. "I'll always be there for you."

Celia looks away, her eyes stinging with sudden tears and she gives her mum's hand a strong squeeze.

Cedric pipes in, "Me too!" He gives her a blinding grin from across their mum, and Celia gives him a soft and grateful one in response.

It's not always easy being an adult—child in this world, but at least she's got her family with her.

That night, Celia falls asleep to the sound of Cedric's soft breaths and the fluffy fur of her stuffed dog.

* * *

 **A/N: I wrote this while sleep-deprived (like _really_ sleep deprived) and it's completely unedited, so there are lots of grammatical mistakes. Sorry. I know it's not an excuse but I was too tired to go back and edit. But it will be edited** — **eventually _._**

 **Thank you so much to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed! Thank you to ALotOfNerdyThings, Mokina, NatNicole, aandm20, Lizzie00, Adhara Snow, DarkDust27, and Goldspark1 for reviewing. Seriously, I'm super, super thankful.**

 **Please let me know if you have any concerns, and thanks for reading.**

 **Guest review replies:**

 **NatNicole: Thanks! I'm glad you like it!**

 **Goldspark1: Thanks for always reviewing! I know I have a lot of fics, but I'll definitely be updating them. Honestly though, I'll most likely be focusing most of my time on this and Raining Dust and Gold because they're my "serious" fics.**


	3. Chapter 3

The Diggorys are a great family. They always have been. But like all the families living on the edge of town, they're strange.

And of course, there are rumors.

Each of the four families that live on the borders of Ottery —the Diggorys, Weasleys, Lovegoods, and Fawcetts—have been there since, well, forever. No one knows when or how they appeared; they were always just there.

The townsfolk call them "the Edge" families whenever referring to them; they've always lived on the edge of town yet no one really knows anything about them.

Which is why the townspeople feel a sort of dichotomy between them and the Edge families, no matter how kind or open the Edge families try to be.

Personally, Viola Wells likes the Diggorys. They go out more often than the other families, simply because the Weasleys have a boatload of kids and the Lovegoods have just had a daughter (Viola suspects Pandora has her hands tied with the baby girl). And the Fawcetts—well, if Viola had to be completely honest, they're not exactly the nicest family.

They're the family the townspeople see the least often, and on the rare chance that they're out in town, they're cold and politely distant.

So Viola likes the Diggorys the best. She doesn't care about the rumors; rumors always fly around when you live in a town as small as this.

But she does care about her daughter, Joy. She's always been a shy child, burying her face in books and preferring to let her best friend Marcia do all the talking for her while they're out in the park.

So when she brings her daughter to the park to play as usual, she's a bit wary when she sees Camilla Diggory with her twins. Camilla is great—she's kind and friendly—but she's never brought her children to the park before, and her twins are making a beeline for Joy's group of friends.

(And if the rumors about the Edge families being part of some illegal crime group nag on the edge of her mind, well, don't blame her if she keeps a sharp eye on her daughter and the Diggory twins.)

But she's distracted by the appearance and addition of Camilla Diggory to the group she's sitting with, and they haven't seen her in so long that they're chatting and trying to catch up with what they've missed and what she's missed.

When Fiona starts gushing over her daughter Janet's recent award in the first grade spelling bee—a story Viola's heard a million times—she takes the chance to turn her attention back to her daughter.

She's shocked by what she sees.

Her daughter, the painfully shy but sweet Joy, is laughing wildly; brighter and happier than Viola's ever seen her be in the park.

Viola inwardly cringes as she watches their sand fight and tries not to think about the amount of dirt she's going to have to clean up when they get home. But her daughter is happy, and really, that's all that matters. A little dirt never hurt anyone anyway.

As the kids clumsily throw clumps of sand at each other, Viola is surprised to see how easily the Diggory twins fit in with Joy's group. It's like they'd always been friends.

The sky is getting darker and she can feel the wind pick up, so she excuses herself from the conversation to take Joy home. Joy was born with a weak body and immune system, and she doesn't want to take the chance of her daughter catching a cold.

The children lie in the sand box, clothes and hair disheveled and smothered in sand. Joy looks up at her, big blue eyes shining, rosy-red cheeks, and all gap-toothed smile. It's beautiful and Viola doesn't have the heart to scold her for getting so dirty.

She tries not to snort when she hears Marcia's mum, June, scolding Marcia for all the sand. June's always been a worry wart. Viola watches as Joy bids goodbye to the kids left in the sandbox and when Joy turns to her with an exuberant face, Viola knows that they'll be coming back to the park very soon.

"Bye, Joy's mum!" Viola turns to see the male Diggory twin grinning at her and waving enthusiastically. He's such an adorable sight that she can't help but feel her heart melt and her face soften.

His twin, Celia, is hidden partially behind him, gripping his hand in a way that reminds her of Joy's bashful mannerisms. Celia waves at her, less animatedly than her twin, and smiles shyly.

"Bye, Mrs. Wells." She says quietly.

Viola raises her eyebrows, somewhat impressed and surprised that Celia knows her last name.

Nonetheless, the twins are just as adorable as Joy, with cherubic faces and shining grey eyes. She pushes the nasty rumors about the Edge families out of her mind and gives them a genuine smile.

"Bye, Celia, Cedric. Joy and I will be back tomorrow, so feel free to come and play again."

Cedric gives a grin equivalent to a thousand suns and Viola feels her heart melt all over again.

Camilla gives Viola and Joy a pleasant, warm goodbye and she can tell that Camilla is pleased that her twins have taken to the other kids so well.

Viola and Joy leave, and as they walk home, Viola thinks that she's never heard her daughter chatter so much.

"Celia's really cool mum! She's really good at making sand castles and we beat the boys in our sand fight!" Joy swings her hand happily.

Viola laughs, and she hopes that Joy's found a life-long friend.

At dinner, all Joy can talk about is her day at the park.

"And we made the best sandcastle and you shoulda seen Grant's face cuz he never loses and we beat him! Celia was so cool! Marcia says a fairy helped her make the sandcastle."

Viola's husband looks up at that. "Celia? Who's that? I've never heard you mention her before, Joy."

Joy jabs her macaroni and cheese cheerfully. "She's Cedric's sister."

It doesn't really explain anything and Viola smiles fondly. "They're the Diggory twins, John."

"The Diggorys?" John pauses in his wrangling with his steak. "Aren't they the family that lives on the Edge?"

"Yes, but they're good people. Camilla is wonderful. I had a great time talking with her today. And her twins are sweet and polite. There's nothing wrong with them, John." She frowns, knowing that her husband is thinking of all the rumors circling the Edge families.

"Viola," He says, uncertainty, "I don't know. I've heard some bad things about them."

Joy's face crumples at this. "Celia's not bad! She's super nice and she's my friend. Marcy likes her too!"

"Sorry, sweetheart, I know." John tries to soothe his daughter.

Viola gives him a look that says, _Not here. Joy's listening._

They finish their dinner with light chatter, changing the subject to the new book Joy's been reading. The heavy words left unspoken hang between John and Viola, but thankfully, Joy doesn't notice and continues to tell them about the dinosaur that found his home.

After they tuck Joy in for bed, John and Viola settle on the living room couch.

"Haven't you heard the rumors?"

"Of course I have, it doesn't mean they're true."

"They're rumors, there's got to be some truth in them"

Viola shoots him a flat stare. "Do you really think the Diggorys are part of an illegal human trafficking crime group?"

"You never know. I'm not sure if I want Joy hanging around with them. What if something happens to her?"

"Nothing's going to happen, John." Viola sighs exasperatedly, "They're good people. Besides, Joy is already friends with Celia; we can't make them break their friendship."

John glares with hot irritation. "Don't you think it's weird that they've been living here for so long but no one really knows anything about them? Just think about it. They hardly ever go out, except for buying groceries and other necessities. None of the Edge family's kids even go to school here!"

Viola rolls her eyes. "They're just private people. Maybe getting homeschooled is a tradition. Or going to that fancy boarding school. Henlys, I think it's called."

"I just don't trust them." Mutters John grumpily.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Joy, if that's what you want."

John leans back wearily and rubs his head. "I just don't want Joy to get hurt."

"I know," Viola says soothingly, "But we can't just assume they're bad people. We've met Camilla and Amos plenty of times and they've never been rude or violent."

John makes a noncommittal sound and Viola sighs, resting her head on his shoulder. They sit in silence for the rest of the night.

* * *

Fall is approaching, and thus, the twins' visits to the park have been getting less and less, much to their dismay.

Ever since that day in the sand box, they've been begging Camilla to take them there every week. Celia likes to think that they've integrated themselves into the group pretty well.

Cedric's found close friends in Grant, Jordan and Andy; and Celia is a little jealous that his attention has been divided, but she's glad that he finally gets the male company that he needs. And Celia glad that she's found Marcia and Joy.

They may not be mature or magical, but they're a fresh breath of air that Celia needs.

Celia and Cedric are planning to beg a playdate off their mum soon, because they haven't seen their friends for a week—and that's way too long, in their opinion.

It's times like these that Celia feels like a child; like she can be a child, even though she's really not. It doesn't hurt her, instead, she relishes the times of freedom and innocence because honestly, the future is a heavy, crushing weight that she can't always handle.

Fall is also Celia and Cedric's favorite season precisely because their birthday is October 2nd. They're going to turn five, and in the Wizarding world, five is a big deal.

She knows this because Camilla and Amos have been super excited, and though it's only September, Amos has already been writing up a guest list.

A guest list.

All of the birthday parties before were small, celebrated only with the twins and their parents. But having a guest list changes everything.

She and Cedric see their dad scribbling on it and crossing things out before dinner, but when they ask him about it, he tells them that it's a surprise.

So she and Cedric decide to sneak into his office and find the list. It was more of Cedric's decision, really, but Celia's coming along so he doesn't get hurt or something like that.

They wait until Camilla's busy making lunch and they sneak into Amos's office while he's at work. Luckily, he hasn't bothered to lock the door—the office in in their home, after all—and they climb onto his desk to rummage around for the list.

His desk is neatly stacked with papers and quills and books. It's so neat that Celia's actually kind of scared by it. (Who organizes their things so neatly anyway? She's always been more of a "throw this here and find it later" kind of person.)

Cedric nearly falls off the desk while trying to reach for a sheet of paper, and Celia quickly steadies him before he can break his neck.

She realizes with bewilderment that she hadn't even had to look to know that Cedric was going to fall—she'd felt it before it happened.

But how? She'd always been able to sense Cedric's emotions, but she always assumed it was a twin thing. This was different. It wasn't exactly telling the future, but more like a sense of danger or warning for Cedric. Kinda like a sixth sense.

She wonders if Cedric can sense her emotions too, or if it's just something she can do. Before she can think of a way to test it out, Cedric pulls the list out with a shout of triumph.

Celia makes sure that Cedric climbs down safely before they huddle over the list on the carpeted floor. The fireplace crackles pleasantly and they scour the list of unfamiliar names. Celia spots the Weasleys, Lovegoods, and Fawcetts and isn't surprised. They're pretty much neighbors.

Suddenly, Celia feels a pang of disappointment that isn't hers and Cedric looks up with confusion.

"Where's Grant, Jordan, Andy, Joy, and Marcia?"

Celia re-reads the list of names and realizes that none of the people that live in town have been invited.

"I dunno." She says quietly, knowing that Cedric will be hurt if they don't show up.

"But why? Doesn't dad know they're our friends?" Belatedly, Celia realizes that Cedric's face has crumpled with dejection and she reaches out to pat his back comfortingly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure if we ask dad and mum they'll put them on the list."

It's a classic case of Muggle discrimination, no matter how unintentional it was, and Celia can't help the rush of anger and exasperation that runs through her.

Seriously, though. This kind of treatment is why there are some nasty rumors about the Diggorys in town. The separation between the Wizarding and Muggle families is so obvious that Celia just wants to take the two and smash them together so they can all get along.

Gently, she tugs Cedric out of the room and distracts him by teaching him how to play Wizarding chess.

(Psh, Wizarding chess. Why can't they just play normal chess?)

When Amos comes home, the first thing Cedric does is hug him and then ask him to add their friends to the list.

"Did you go through my stuff, Ced?" Amos doesn't look surprised but his frown makes Cedric look properly abashed.

"Sorry, dad." Glancing down with embarrassment, he remembers his original task and looks back up with determination.

"But can we invite Grant and the others? Pleaaaaase?" Cedric begs, giving him pitiful and pleading eyes. (They're basically Bambi eyes, but Cedric has amped it up to two times the adorableness, so Celia just calls them the Cedric eyes.)

Amos sighs and looks uncertain. "Let me talk to your mum, okay?"

"Okay." Cedric doesn't take it as a yes, but he doesn't take it as a no, either. "C'mon, Lia, it's almost dinner so we gotta finish the game."

Celia gives her dad a hug. "I'd like to invite them too." She adds her support for Cedric before rushing off behind him to finish their chess game.

Of course, Celia thoroughly creams Cedric in chess, but he doesn't mind, as long as he gets to play with her.

"I'll beat you next time." He grins at her challengingly and they scramble off to dinner when their mum calls.

The week goes on and Amos never tells them if he's going to add their Muggle friends to the list, so she and Cedric take turns badgering him whenever he comes home. Celia knows that Camilla is fine with inviting them over, so it's just wearing Amos down.

Finally, after a whole week, he responds to their annoying antics. "We can't, alright? It's tradition for the fifth birthday to have magic, and we can't cover it up if Muggles come." He bends down to their level. "Your fifth birthday is important because that's when your magic starts to mature, and we have to do a ceremony."

Cedric groans. "No! I want them to come; it's not fair! We went to Jordan's birthday party and I told him he could come to our house."

Celia feels fury burn in her chest like a lightning bolt but she's not sure if it's hers or Cedric's. Cedric shares a glance with her, grey eyes flashing storm clouds, and she knows that her own look the same. It's both of their rage combined, and when it comes to volatile emotions, magic is never one to back down.

She doesn't really understand the connection she has with her twin, but she gets to see some of it in action as the air around them starts to crackle with a static electricity that doesn't exactly feel safe.

She's angry; angrier than she's ever been before, and it eats at her, filling her up with pure rage and force and she's a rising whirlwind; a tornado bursting in gusts of sheer power. And she feels Cedric next to her, a hurricane matching her tornado, and everything goes downhill from there.

The lights start flashing, windows start shaking, and the walls are trembling. The ground beneath their feet rumbles in tune with their emotions, and Cedric's anger feeds into hers as hers feeds into his.

They're unstoppable, unreachable; a twin force of natural disasters just waiting to ravage and destroy.

Celia hears glass shattering and objects falling to the ground with loud thumps, but she doesn't care. All she can feel is rage, rage, rage, and all she wants to do is let it out.

It's a fucking earthquake in here and everything, everything around her is breaking and changing into fractured pieces of what they once were.

Time stops and goes on; it feels like a lifetime yet it's not, and everything. is. broken.

And then it all stops.

They always say the calm before the storm has the most frightening silence, but, Jessica thinks, it's the calm after the storm that scares her the most. It's when you have to face the aftermath of all the destruction.

Jessica's pretty sure she and Cedric just recreated a 6.0 magnitude earthquake, and shit has really hit the fan.

She's on the floor, trembling in the mess around her, and somehow, Cedric's hand has found its way into hers, and he's gripping her hand like it's the last thing he'll ever do.

Flashes echo across her mind; flashes of her past that she can still remember like it was yesterday. Jessica grew up in California, and earthquakes weren't exactly uncommon.

But she can still remember the day they had an earthquake so bad her ceiling was covered with cracks after it was over.

She remembers the terrifying seize of her heart, the jolt of adrenaline, the smashing of decorations and cabinets and shelves and it was chaos all around her.

She still doesn't know how she made it outside with her brother in tow, but it was the single most horrifying experience she'd ever been through and the memories echo in her heart as she folds herself into a ball, still gripping Cedric's hand.

"Lia." Cedric whispers, "We're okay. We're okay." His other hand comes up to rest on Celia's trembling shoulders and Celia can feel his calm bleeding into hers, and her violent shakes begin to settle down.

She huddles closer into his embrace and she feels another hand, just as gentle, come to rest on her back.

Without having to look up, she knows it's her mum.

After what seems like an eternity, Celia looks up. Cedric and Camilla have wrapped themselves around her in a warm cocoon, and she's never felt more safe or loved.

"Thanks." She murmurs, half embarrassed by her meltdown, and half shaken by what just happened.

Camilla smiles, all affection and worry, "It's alright. I'm just glad you're okay."

There's nothing left in Celia, she's empty and exhausted, and she doesn't even have the energy to move from where she is. From what she can tell, Cedric is the same. He's leaning into her with a tired slump, and she can tell that he really wants to sleep.

Amos stands above them with an imposing posture and he is angry.

Camilla stands up and faces him. "Amos, it's alright. They didn't mean any harm by it, you know that too. They were just angry. They've never thrown a temper tantrum before, so I'm not surprised this happened."

"It's not alright! Look at the mess they made! It was just for a few Muggles getting onto the list and they made this amount of destruction. No, they can't do this whenever they don't get something they want."

His face contorts and Celia realizes, suddenly, that Amos loves and hates with the same amount of passion and it isn't always a good thing.

"They've never done this before!" Camilla's eyes are fire.

She flicks her wand and everything starts to return back to its original state. Amos glares and then does the same. While they fix the house, Celia musters up scraps of strength she didn't have but needs to have, and drags Cedric to their room.

They shut the door, and then the yelling starts.

This is the first time Celia and Cedric have heard their parents argue.

Cedric climbs onto Celia's bed and burrows under the covers before letting out a whimper.

Celia joins him and they huddle together under the darkness of the blanket.

"Are mum and dad mad at us?" Cedric's voice sounds so, so, small.

"No, of course not. It was a mistake. We got mad so our magic reacted; we didn't do it on purpose." Celia wraps an arm around his shoulders.

"Then why are they yelling?"

A small sting of hate buries itself in Celia's heart. She hates seeing Cedric like this, and though she knows Amos has a right to be angry, she can't stop the irrational hate.

"It's really messy so mum and dad are trying to clean it up, but it's hard. Yelling is a good way to let go of emotions." Celia honestly doesn't know what to say.

Cedric doesn't look convinced, but he doesn't know what to say either.

"I'm scared." He admits. Celia's heart breaks for him and she pulls him closer, trying to give him as much comfort as she can.

"Don't worry, just go to sleep." She pets his back and Cedric moves his hands to cover his ears.

She wishes that the covers could block out all the sound from the outside world.

Slowly, the sounds start to fade out, and all she can hear is Cedric's breathing. He blinks at her.

"The yelling's gone."

Did she just _Silencio_ the blanket? She wants to revel in her accomplishment, but there's no room for that. She shushes Cedric and tells him to sleep—she can feel his exhaustion.

She falls asleep to the sound of his even breaths.

When they wake up, the covers are pulled from their heads and Celia blearily rubs her eyes to see Camilla.

"Mum?" She asks, her voice scratchy with sleep.

Cedric sits up and leans on the headboard of the bed. Celia places herself next to him and looks at their mum expectantly.

"Is everything okay?" Celia knows her dad isn't the type for domestic abuse, but she can't help but feel scared.

"Don't worry." Camilla smooths a hand over their heads. Her face is tired and lined with the weight of her years.

"Mum." Celia reaches out to touch the side of her mum's face. Celia wants to cry.

Cedric copies her and places his hand on the other side of Camilla's cheek and Celia feels a tear fall onto her hand.

"It's alright." She hugs them close to her with a watery smile.

The door creaks and the three of them look up to see Amos stepping in.

Instinctively, Celia wants to cringe. But she holds herself back—this is her _father_ —and he bends down in front of their bed.

"Ced, Lia, I'm sorry for getting so mad. I know you two were upset so I don't blame you, okay?" His voice shines with sincerity and tension escapes Celia like a balloon.

"Sorry for making such a mess." Celia murmurs, and Cedric does the same.

"Group hug?" Amos looks uncertain, but they all open their arms towards him and when he encircles them with his arms, they feel like a family. Complete.

He lets them go. "I'm sorry, but we can't invite your friends this time, okay? But we'll invite them your next birthday for sure."

Cedric beams, happy that everything is back to normal. "Okay."

Celia shrugs. Her dad may not be perfect, but he's a good person. He may have his faults, but he's the person Camilla married, and Celia knows Camilla would never marry a bad person.

The distance between the Muggle and Wizarding world is too big to fix in one step, but with time, Celia thinks that they could close the gap.

(And by time, she means a few decades.)

* * *

It's the day of their fifth birthday, and Celia is freaking excited. Cedric is ecstatic. Ever since the incident with the magic-induced earthquake, their magic has improved substantially, and has started to stabilize as well. She can see why the fifth birthday means so much to the magical world.

Camilla and Amos haven't said anything about the traditional "ceremony" that's supposed to take place, and the twins are left to their imaginations.

Honestly, they don't really know what's going to happen today—all they know is that a ton of people are going to come and most of them will be strangers.

Celia is definitely not ready for that kind of exposure.

It's only ten in the morning, but the whole house has been transformed. Their house is practically out of a scene from a historical movie with all the extravagant and elegant castles.

Every inch of their walls are covered in decoration or color, and the floors are cleanly carpeted with a moving story. Several objects are hovering and there's even something flying around and sprinkling a translucent kind of glitter that looks like silvery snow.

Their house is _sparkling_.

Wizards may go overboard with all the parties and magic, but it's gorgeous.

The doorbell rings and Camilla goes to answer it, already expecting the Weasleys, who offered to help and bring food.

The red-headed family files in, and Cedric lets out a shout when he sees Charlie. He's come to see him as a cool older brother, and because Bill is gone for his first year at Hogwarts, Cedric's excited to know what Bill's been telling Charlie in his letters about Hogwarts.

Celia greets the Weasleys politely and waves shyly at Mrs. Weasley, who is holding a baby Ginny.

Cedric is already ushering Charlie inside, who is followed by Fred and George, and Percy leading a toddling Ron.

They're a huge family, and Celia is overwhelmed every time she sees them. They visit the Diggorys a few times a year, so Celia is already fairly well acquainted with all of them. Still, it's been a while since they've last met, so she's already anticipating everyone's change.

Fred and George bound in like the mischievous troublemakers they are, and Mrs. Weasley makes sure to warn them not to break or ruin anything before letting them go.

Celia immediately gravitates towards Percy's side as the Weasley children gather in the living room and entertain themselves while the adults set everything up.

"Charlie, tell us about Hogwarts! What did Bill say? He got into Gryffindor, right?" Cedric grins excitedly as he tugs Charlie into a sitting position.

Charlie laughs good-naturedly and sits down with the rest of them. "Of course he did, and Gryffindor is really awesome. He says that they've got really good food—it's not as good as mum's but it's good."

Cedric listens, enraptured, and Charlie continues to talk while Fred and George roll on the carpet.

"I'm Ron." Ron pads up to Celia and she smiles.

"I know. We met when you were a baby."

Ron looks amazed. "Really? Wow, you're old, like Charlie."

"Ron!" Percy frowns, "That's not very nice to say."

"It's okay." Celia looks at them fondly. Though the Weasleys don't come by too often, they're genuinely nice people and Celia can't help but like them. And it doesn't help that Ron looks absolutely adorable as a two year old.

"Oh yeah," she turns to Percy, "we finally got a board for Wizarding chess. Want to play?"

She's always liked Percy. He's a year older, but he's quiet and calm, like her, so they get along famously. Both of them like to read, and he's not loud or intrusive, and she's glad for that.

"Sure." He grins as she tugs out the board and settles it in front of them. Ron looks at it curiously, tilting his head in a way that makes Celia want to squeal.

Fred and George have abandoned their rolling aimlessly on the floor and are badgering Charlie about Hogwarts with Cedric. Celia knows they'll lose interest soon, but she leaves it to Cedric to entertain them. The twins are hard to deal with, and Celia is too passive to handle them.

They're also twins like her and Cedric, and she's interested to know if they have a similar bond to the one she and Cedric have. Judging by the way they always seem to know what the other is thinking, they definitely have a bond, but she doesn't know to what extent it reaches. Twins in the Wizarding world are rare, and it's nice to have another set of twins around, even if they can be really annoying.

She turns her attention to the chess game and waits for Percy to make his first move. Ron sits by the board attentively and watches them move the pieces.

Celia knows it isn't really fair that Percy has to play against someone as old as her, but she figures that he could use the practice. She doesn't really have anyone close to her real age to play with anyway, so she'll take what she can get.

Percy is surprisingly good for a six year old, but is nowhere near Celia's intellectual level. The game ends with Celia's win, but Percy is stubborn and asks for a rematch.

She has nothing else to do, so she indulges him. Cedric and Charlie have moved onto chess as well, with the other chessboard that they have, and play against each other as Ron tries to follow both boards.

Halfway through her third game, Celia realizes that Fred and George are nowhere to be found.

She hopes that they haven't gone somewhere to wreak havoc.

Then she hears a loud bang and all her hopes are dashed.

Cedric gives her a look of equal exasperation and they interrupt their chess matches to find the other set of twins.

"Was that Fred and George?" Percy's brows are furrowed with irritation, no doubt tired with their antics that he deals with daily.

"Most likely." Charlie rolls his eyes fondly and looks at Cedric and Celia. "C'mon, I'll help you find them. Percy, can you watch Ron?"

Percy nods, relieved that he doesn't have to go deal with Fred and George.

Ron looks disappointed that he has to stay, and is about to protest when Celia gets a genius idea.

"Why don't you finish my game for me? I bet you can beat Percy." She tells him, gently nudging him towards her unfinished game.

"Okay!" Ron cheers, and sits down opposite of Percy.

Another loud bang sounds from the backyard, and she and Cedric quickly go to investigate, followed by Charlie.

When they finally open the back door and walk outside, they're greeted by a mess of fallen chairs and tables. And worst of all, ruined cake.

Fred and George are sitting in the middle of the mess, shoving pieces of birthday cake in their mouth.

It's like a scene from a horror movie. She feels great, deep, despair from herself and Cedric, and they launch forward with wails of dismay.

"Cake!" Sobs Cedric, "What happened to the cake?"

Fred and George look up with identical faces of guilt. Awkwardly, George hands Cedric a piece.

"Want some?"

Celia drops to her knees next to the fallen cake and mourns the loss of her beloved dessert. The cake was beautiful. It was glorious. And now it's gone.

"I can't believe you ruined the cake!" This is the first time the Weasley brothers have heard Celia raise her voice.

Charlie rushes forward, alarmed and ready to do damage control.

"It's okay, I'm sure our parents can make another one." He pats her head, trying to reassure her.

Cedric sits down next to her, mouth smeared with the cake that George gave him, and hands her the last part of his piece.

Celia sniffles and gratefully accepts the piece.

And then tries not to burst out laughing. Here she is, a grown adult (including the years she's lived as Celia) and she's lying on the floor crying about cake. Cake.

In her defense, it's the best cake she's ever tasted.

They all watch as she chews and swallows the piece, and then relax when she doesn't scream or burst out in tears.

Celia shrugs nonchalantly and wonders what her dad will say when he sees the mess.

The adults are still in the kitchen and haven't noticed the mess, so they can either try to clean it up or leave it there.

Exchanging a glance with Cedric, they decide to leave the mess and drag Fred and George inside the bathroom to clean up.

"Should we clean up the mess?" Charlie stares at the jumble of chairs and tables and cake. Celia can tell he really doesn't want to clean up.

"Nah, it's fine." She grabs Fred and George and herds them towards the bathroom sink.

Charlie heaves a sigh of relief and heads to the kitchen to notify the parents about the mess.

"Prepare the paper towels." She mutters to Cedric, who nods solemnly, and dashes to the closet where they keep the paper towels.

She's thankful they even have any, because with wands, there's really no need for paper towels.

She and Cedric scrub the twins clean and try not to spill too much water as they wipe the cake off of Fred and George.

After they finish, they move backward to inspect their work.

Fred and George are mussed by all the scrubbing, and most of their clothes are wet from the water. Celia tries not to groan because they've kind of made the mess worse.

"Oh well." Cedric says cheerfully, and pulls them towards the living room again.

(And because Celia is his twin, she can tell that he pulls them a little harder than necessary.)

If this is what happens before the party, she really doesn't want to know what will happen during the party.

* * *

 **A/N: I messed up the ages of the Weasleys, whoops. (I'm trying not to slam my head on the desk right now.) Percy is a year older than Cedric and Fred and George are a year younger. Bill is seven years older and Charlie is five. (I'm so sorry I fucked up.) Also, this chapter is a lot shorter than usual, and I'm really, really sorry for that. I usually aim for at least 7k words, but finals week is coming up and I don't have enough time to write chapters that long. I'll keep updating but the chapters will be a lot shorter for this month (just a heads up). Good luck to everyone who has finals coming up as well!**

 **Thank you to everyone who favorited and followed; I really, really appreciate all the support for my story. And a huge thank you to bladeworksfan, Riku Yamamoto, DarkDust27, Scaevus, Mokina, PrincessBlonde, xenocanaan, Adhara Snow, Goldspark1, Lizzie00, ThePhantomismyLove, magicdownunder, Hanna, and Lady Syndra for reviewing.**

 **As usual, thanks for reading and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.**

 **Replies to guest reviews:**

 **Goldspark1: Haha, yeah… Fireworks Against the Moon is pretty much a crack fic that I only write when I'm in a hyperactive/weird mood. I don't know much about twins either—I only have one sibling—but I'm trying my best to describe their bond. It's mostly magic-oriented and I like to think that it exists because of how in-synch Fred and George were all the time. But it's mostly my speculation, so I hope the bond thing turned out okay.**

 **Hanna: Thank you so much! I'm still undecided on the House she'll be in but I'm leaning more towards Hufflepuff. I know that she can't rely on Cedric all the time (that's something she has to learn) but I feel that her loyalty to her twin would land her in Hufflepuff. Also, I like Hufflepuffs so I want to write about that House.**


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